All this means is that about 70% of people make quick picks. There's no difference between picking your own numbers vs using a computer. It's like saying you're more likely to win a game of Heads & Tails by letting the computer randomly pick than letting yourself pick.
I'm guessing that's why when there was the case of the stolen one a few years back, the thief or whoever hired an law firm to do the collections, but local laws required a reveal and to answer some questions, but that never happened. Edit: found the story and the followup, which I didn't know about. It gives a lot of detail on how winners are verified. Turns out it wasn't a theft as suspected, but an ineligible winner trying to hide the fact that he bought it. http://abcnews.go.com/US/arrest-mystery-143m-unclaimed-lottery-ticket/story?id=28258198
Ultimately, if we are saying quick pick is equivalent to self pick, are we implying that the human brain can do nothing mathematically or intellectually superior to increase it's chance of winning? That there really is no intuition. Or no superior computing power.
Simple.....more people buy quick picks than human picks which equates to 70% of winnings for quick picks.
There is a 1 in 292 million chance of winning the lottery. There is a 1 in 292 million chance of quick pick duplicating. So if you self pick you statistically have a better chance than the quick pick because you avoid the potential for picking a duplicate combination. Outside of that pedantic thought, you can't outgame a uniform distribution unless a) time travel is a reality or b) you can predict the future.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What happens if someone in China actually wins the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Powerball?src=hash">#Powerball</a> jackpot? <a href="https://t.co/TJKzY9lfGj">https://t.co/TJKzY9lfGj</a> <a href="https://t.co/MsX96SD1ej">pic.twitter.com/MsX96SD1ej</a></p>— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/687386205311270912">January 13, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Never played lottery. Going to buy a ticket just to say I participated in the first billion dollar lottery. So how does this crap work? The numbers that I buy tonight are only matched to tonight's drawing right? Not previous numbers that no one has won on? Also, what do I do? Just walk up to a gas station and ask for powerball ticket?? How late do I have to buy the ticket? I am on east coast.
correct, correct, and go inside and look for the lottery set up...grab the blank tickets and fill them out, take them to the register Not sure of the time
I should have opened a website and let people from other countries buy lottery ticket. Could have been a millionaire overnight.
or just ask the cashier for $X amount in tickets and he'll print you off random numbers. they are $2 each.
Generally speaking, if you pick your own numbers, you're at a much higher chance of picking the same numbers as someone else. People rarely pick random numbers; They often use dates. The numbers 1 - 31 will be the most hand picked numbers over 32-69. Im not one to buy into the lotto being a scam. I do wonder how truly random quick pick numbers are, however. Unfortunately, I do think the system will lead to direct corruption. Unfortunately it already is indirectly. In October, they added 60-69. Its no coincidence there has only been one winner since this format chance. We will likely see more billion dollar powerballs in the future. This is significant on a couple levels; -The percentage amount going to the jackpot was lowered by a couple points -An increase of 10 additional numbers drastically reduces 5+0 (1 million dollar) payouts -The amount of interest powerball is earning is insane as the jackpot sits unclaimed -The interest in people playing is off the charts. As you can see, its more ridiculous to play the powerball now.
I splurged today and bought $6 worth of tickets; I bought $4 the last two draws. The cashiers keep asking me if I want more tickets when I give them $20. I'll sadly continue to play if no one wins..
I bought like $10 worth of tickets the other day. Don't care for anymore. I just hope some ppl win tonight so this is all over with.
