Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] (55 choose 5) * 42 = 146,107,962

["Vern Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I thought sure there was once a story about a rich person, I think it was Australia, that went out and bought every possible number combination in order to "buy" the lottery.

 

It was a huge undertaking, if I remember the story correctly, the value was around $300 million or so and they spent somewhere around 2 million in getting people to go out and buy lottery tickets for them.

 

In the end, they did "win" and were lucky enough to be the only winner so they were able to get a return on the investment, but they failed in their attempt to cover the complete spread of possibilities.

 

I have been looking for that story for a while now and I have not been able to find anything about it, has anyone on the list ever heard that story?

 

On 3/7/07, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:

On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Jonathan King wrote:

> On 3/7/07, Mike Miller < EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
>
>> The best Powerball scheme is to keep your dollar!
>
> Not really. The best powerball scheme is to offer to buy huge wads of
> Powerball tickets for other people who are too lazy to stand in line.

OK.  The best Powerball scheme, if you're not a homeless person, is to
keep your dollar!  ;-)

By the way, another interpretation of "(55 choose 5) * 42 = 146,107,962"
is that it is the number of possible Powerball results.  All of them are
equally likely.

Also, Jon knows all these things, and I know that (and he probably knows
that I know that), so I was writing it mostly for other people and for my
own amusement.

Mike

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-- 
Thanks
F Vernon Green 
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