Tim May said, ...As for lotto, simple calculations tell anyone that the best way to win is not to play. The return _at best_ is 30 or 40 cents on the dollar, with the rest going to all the various programs the lotto is supposed to support. The more you play, the more you lose. Actually, if memory serves, the CA Lotto claims to return 50% of income in prizes with the remainder divided between schools and "administration." Better than 30-40, but still worse than odds on any casino game or even the "numbers racket" run by organized crime. However, one can improve the percentage by only playing lotto after 1 or more games where there was no perfect match, as often happens, where some of the prize money is carried over to the next game, and so on, until eventually somebody wins the grand prize. After some number "x" of passed games, the odds turn in favor of the player; but not by too much since this is just when large numbers of people play and if more than one perfect ticket is played, the prize is split. Calculation of "x" is not "simple", since you also have to figure in the 20-year (with no interest) payout of large prizes. One other tip for lotto players: Never mark your ticket with any recognizable pattern. The random "quick pick" is probably best. Reason: A pattern is equally likely to be picked at random as a "quick pick" but much -more- likely to also be picked by some other schmuck. So if your pattern pick wins, you're more likely to have to split the prize. -- edgar@spectrx.sbay.org (Edgar W. Swank) SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005 Cupertino, Ca
Edgar Swank wrote:
Tim May said,
...As for lotto, simple calculations tell anyone that the best way to win is not to play. The return _at best_ is 30 or 40 cents on the dollar, with the rest going to all the various programs the lotto is supposed to support. The more you play, the more you lose.
Actually, if memory serves, the CA Lotto claims to return 50% of income in prizes with the remainder divided between schools and
"administration." Better than 30-40, but still worse than odds on any casino game or even the "numbers racket" run by organized crime. ^^^^^^^ "Or even"? The numbers games almost always have much better odds than
Maybe, but the state has a wonderful scam of paying off a "5 million dollar jackpot" over 20 years; the true value (what the same deal would cost you to buy as an annuity) is less than $5 M, possibly much less. If private outfits did this, they'd be jailed. the State pays...that's one reason for their popularity (another is tax avoidance).
Calculation of "x" is not "simple", since you also have to figure in the 20-year (with no interest) payout of large prizes.
Oh, I see you mentioned this scam. (Calculation should still be simple, as any spreadsheet can handle discounted present values and the like.)
One other tip for lotto players: Never mark your ticket with any
I've never played, and never plan to. Money down the drain. On the other hand, I play the stock market, and my losses in one day probably dwarf the lottery ticket losses of a small town. But I win more than I lose, because the stock market is not a zero sum game. Sorry for talking about non-crypto things here, but volume on the Cypherpunks list has remained abnormally low since the rolling outages of a couple of weeks ago...I suspect we lost some folks. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In list.cypherpunks, tcmay@netcom.com writes:
Maybe, but the state has a wonderful scam of paying off a "5 million dollar jackpot" over 20 years; the true value (what the same deal would cost you to buy as an annuity) is less than $5 M, possibly much less. If private outfits did this, they'd be jailed.
Jailed? Publisher's Clearing House, American Family Puublishers and Reader's Digest have done this for years. - -- Roy M. Silvernail -- roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org "I'm a family man, model citizen." -- Warren Zevon -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAwUBLhAQCBvikii9febJAQEVeAP8CrFQtDidBx2g3u/d3q8jpYNtRs9gzOvb OZg6FIou15ImoxqHEA6VVMQq9DPgvkaC2ypPg36XbeSyq7fF3xvIppjqkPMxKkSv 37ZYAgjPeVU0affqtMbEG4DESstNOByGSisJG6v1dIS/tmGYDGz4CqST1TL58VMZ 0hc/sOUPkzY= =Mr0c -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
C'punks, On Tue, 28 Jun 1994, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:
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In list.cypherpunks, tcmay@netcom.com writes:
Maybe, but the state has a wonderful scam of paying off a "5 million dollar jackpot" over 20 years; the true value (what the same deal would cost you to buy as an annuity) is less than $5 M, possibly much less. If private outfits did this, they'd be jailed.
Jailed? Publisher's Clearing House, American Family Puublishers and Reader's Digest have done this for years.
I don't think so. While they now engage in this questionable practice, I don't think they've been doing for more than 2-3 years. If I had to guess, I would think they only feel safe in doing so because the states have already established a legal precedent with their lotterys. They (the states) would be hard pressed to make a distinction between their annuity funded 20 year payoffs and those of Publisher's Clearing House. Thus the State's corruption taints the free market. S a n d y
participants (4)
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edgar＠spectrx.sbay.org -
roy＠sendai.cybrspc.mn.org -
Sandy Sandfort -
tcmay＠netcom.com