What are the mathmatical statistics of winning millions of dollars in any lottery?
I am just wondering what the mathmatical statistics are for winning a huge jackpot as opposed to a fairly small jackpot in any lottery?
Hi Moneyfairy,
I have written some articles on the probabilities of winning various lotteries -- Powerball and MegaMillions in the US, 6/49 and LottoMax in Canada, EuroMillions in Western Europe. The answer depends on the structure of the lottery, that is, how many balls are chosen and the range of numbers.
For the Powerball, you pick 5 different numbers from between 1 and 59, and then a "power" ball from between 1 and 35. That gives you a total of
35 x [59 x 58 x 57 x 56 x 55]/[5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1] = 175,223,510
different ticket combinations. In the expression above, you divide by 5x4x3x2x1 because the order of the first 5 numbers does not matter. To get the probability of winning the jackpot, you compute
1/175,223,510 = 0.000000005707
which is the same as 0.0000005707%. A very low chance! The size of the jackpot does not affect the probability of winning, only the combinatorial struction of the lottery. If the jackpot was advertised as only a few million, your chances of winning would be the same.
I hope that answers your question. You can see more in my hub
http://calculus-geometry.hubpages.com/h … -Lotteries
Also, the websites of the different lotteries give you the probabilities of all their prizes, so you don't have to do the math by hand.
by jkchandra 13 years ago
If I won, I would start an investment after paying off debt. Buy my own house. A nice Lexus. Support parents and brother. And then, live life they way I always wanted to it,.....Free!
by Stacie L 14 years ago
GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN ITMega Millions estimated jackpot grows to $237MDaily NewsUpdated: 12/30/2010 07:40:08 AM PSTThere were no tickets sold with all six numbers in Tuesday night's drawing of the multi-state Mega Millions lottery and the estimated jackpot for Friday's drawing will grow to $237...
by carozy 12 years ago
I know the odds are very much against winning. I am always curious if people believe they can really win and play the lottery. What do you think?
by nightwork4 12 years ago
if you could change one thing about your country what would it be?i don't mean things like the weather, but rather social or political issues.
by Abdus Salaam 9 years ago
To all atheists: what if I asked God for the winning lotto numbers and He said 13, 8, 28, 18, 2, 48and you won, will you believe in Him OR will you say it was luck, coincidence and rigged
by Wayne Brown 4 years ago
You just won ten million dollars in the lottery, what do you do now?
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