Archive for the ‘Probability’ Category

Why you shouldn’t play the lottery

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

A gent by the name of Rob Cockerham has created a lottery simulator that pretty much encapsulates why you shouldn't play the lottery.  Here's a quote from my results:

You played 1040 games of Mega Millions. It cost $1040. You won $108.

Incidentally, the highest single win was $10.  The first time I ran the simulator, I only won $56.    Also:

In the 504234 times this simulation has run, players have won $27696303
And by won I mean they have won back $27696303 of the $504234 they spent (5492%).

This part is inaccurate at the moment (probably due to server hammerage).  The number of times the simulation has run went down between my two runs, but the amount of money won went up.

Incredibly Depressing Mega Millions Lottery Simulator! (via Boing Boing, which explains why his server is getting hammered right now).