Are lottery scratch tickets by far the worst way of gambling?

[andyfox]

http://www.best-online-casino.com/on...asino-tips.pdf

Most bad casino bets are usually made in conjunction with some less bad bets. For example, a player may take and lay odds on a pass line bet, which yields no advantage for the house. But at the same time, he may make a hard way bet, which yields a teremendous house advantage. So in the aggregate, his good bets are not as good as they should be, and his bad bets not as bad as they should be. Not too different from poker where even good players make bad bets along with their good ones.

Then, too, the casino has a luring addictiveness that beckons its customers to play more and to play games other than the best ones (best from the customers' standpoint of yielding the smallest edge for the house). There's no such gambling temptation for those who buy scratchers at their local 7-11.

[elwoodblues]

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Why play only when you have the absolute WORST chance of winning

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Your odds of winning a 300 million dollar jackpot are exactly the same as a 10 million dollar jackpot. They don't change the number of balls when the jackpot goes up. Your odds of winning 100% of the pot go down, but your odds of winning remain the same.

[pudley4]

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The absolute DUMBEST thing lottery players do is only play occasionally, when the jackpot is really big, and there are way more people playing than normal. WTF!?! Why play only when you have the absolute WORST chance of winning, even worse than your normal virtually 0 chance?

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The odds against winning are exactly the same, whether 1 person, or 1 billion people are playing along with you.

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Oh, the jackpot is twice as big this week as last week...then I have to wonder WHAT the hell can you buy with $200 million you can't buy with $100 million?

I'll never understand people.

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If the odds against winning are 80 million to one, and the payout is 40 million, it's a -EV bet. If the payout is 150 million, it's a +EV bet. Simple.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

i think the worst craps bet is 16.67%.

lottery is clearly the worst bet available anywhere.

al

[andyfox]

"If the payout is 150 million, it's a +EV bet."

In the long run. But of course in the long run we're all dead. Most people die before they see the long run in the lottery.

That is, 99.99999% of the population would end up the same way if they only bet the lottery when it was +EV as those who only bet it when it's -EV: they lose all their money. The odds of winning are simply too high no matter whether it's +EV or not.

[Zeno]

Keno, which is essentially a lottery, offered in almost every casino in the US probably has similar return. I think Keno is usually one of worst gambling games to play in most casinos. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am wrong on this.

-Zeno

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The odds of winning are simply too high no matter whether it's +EV or not.

So what? I play the same number in Powerball every drawing. That's $2 per week, or approximately 14% of my weekly expenditure at Starbucks. Do I expect to win? Of course not. But I do get to fantasize about what I'd do with the cash on my long, annoying commute home from work each night. Now, I could be fantasizing about banging Selma Hayek while driving, but the truth is I've got way more chance of winning powerball than of ever banging Selma Hayek. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[ScottTheFish]

[quote

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The odds against winning are exactly the same, whether 1 person, or 1 billion people are playing along with you.



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No kidding. Are the odds also the same for having to split the jackpot with a bunch of people if you are playing vs. one billion or one person? That's what I meant, the odds of winning the WHOLE jackpot go down. That's what I should have said.

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If the odds against winning are 80 million to one, and the payout is 40 million, it's a -EV bet. If the payout is 150 million, it's a +EV bet. Simple.

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Sure it is. I suggest you stop playing poker and start putting all your money into lottery tickets. As a poker player you know to never pass up a +EV bet [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

All you have to do is buy 80 million tickets and boom, theoretically you should hit your 80 million to one shot. Simple. Don't do it all at once though, could get expensive. I suggest 1 million a year for 80 years.

[Ulysses]

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but the truth is I've got way more chance of winning powerball than of ever banging Selma Hayek. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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If you win PowerBall, your chances of banging Selma Hayek will increase considerably.

[andyfox]

Banging Selma Hayek would be the ultimate power ball in and of itself, don't you think?