[Tutor] OT - Re: Can anyone help me?

[Ed Singleton]

You can actually increase your chance of winning in the English lottery.

If two many tickets win a prize in one draw, the lowest prize (£10 for
three numbers) is not paid out.

Also the jackpot is shared between all the winning tickets (6 numbers)
some sets of numbers like 1,2,3,4,5,6 are chosen by over 20,000 people
a week.  You would share the jackpot with 20,000 other people.

Picking random numbers makes you less likely to chose the same numbers
as everyone else.

Incidently, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 14 million
(roughly).  I've seen the jackpot go up to £25million which makes it
theoretically a good bet.

Ed

On 28/10/05, bob <bgailer at alum.rpi.edu> wrote:
> At 07:07 PM 10/27/2005, Nathan Pinno wrote:
> >Hey all,
> >I am trying to create a program that draws 6 numbers between 1 and 49 at
> >random for creating lottery tickets. I want to have a better chance when I
> >play.
>
> Define "better chance". Lottery odds are how many tickets you buy relative
> to how many tickets everyone else has bought. No program will improve or
> degrade your odds. The only way you can reduce your odds is to buy more
> than one ticket with the same numbers.
>
> Keep in mind that a lottery is as truly random as one can get (assuming no
> rigging). There is no memory of past outcomes involved nor of better
> guessing techniques.
>
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