[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Very Depressing Powerball Simulator (Page 1 of 5)
Posted: 2/5/2015 12:23:49 PM EDT
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I posted this in the Powerball thread where everyone is day dreaming about what they are going to buy when they win. Some people have already developed detailed plans what they will do when they win.
The truth is that none of you will ever win. The odds are so colossal that it's almost impossible to fathom with the human mind. I challenge anyone to run this simulator and actually win the powerball. I've had it running for over a week before with nothing. So far I've been running it 10 minutes with 25,000 tickets bought for 220 years played and nothing. Instructions: Select Max speed and then select only the jackpot prize and click Start http://powerballsim.appspot.com/ I used to play the Powerball sometimes but not anymore I can see the replies now "but someone has to win!", that's true, even though the Powerball goes through many weeks with no winners despite hundreds of millions of people playing. Like I said, the odds are hard to understand. If anyone wins on the simulator post it up, I'll keep mine running all day |
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Quoted: I'll get back to you... Quoted: Quoted: Running sim. Currently two $100 winners out of $20k spent  I'll get back to you... Man, you suck at Powerball. I won ~1,700 out of my first $20k.  You sound like a democrat  ETA Wait, you're not losing it all, so, not exactly a democrat |
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Man, you suck at Powerball. I won ~1,700 out of my first $20k. You sound like a democrat Quoted:
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Running sim. Currently two $100 winners out of $20k spent I'll get back to you... Man, you suck at Powerball. I won ~1,700 out of my first $20k. You sound like a democrat It's up to $0.09 now. That's a upward trend. To the moon! 
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I would venture a guess that there's very little statistical difference in your odds of winning whether you bought a ticket or you didn't.
IOW, the odds of you buying the powerball ticket is probably not statistically significantly different than the odds of you finding the winning ticket stuck to the bottom of your shoe.
That being said, I love the lottery. It's the only taxes a lot of FSA ever pay. |
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Something about better odds of getting hit by lighting and bitten by a great white shark in the same year, living in IOWA. Who cares still more fun to dream about winning, I waist $$$ on worse things. Here's another good way to picture the odds: Here is an example I have used in classrooms all over the country, and it is way more fun than thinking about being struck by lightning! Imagine 175 million freshly minted one-dollar bills are being delivered to my house near Washington, D.C. One of those dollar bills is specially marked as the "lucky dollar bill." You get to pick a dollar bill, and if you happen to pick the lucky dollar bill, you win all the dollar bills. A straightforward mathematical calculation using the dimensions of a dollar bill reveals it will take two semi-trailers to deliver the 175,000,000 dollar bills to my house. Once these arrive, they will have to be unloaded, of course, so you will have a fair chance to pick the lucky dollar bill. So, we will lay them out end to end. How long will that line of dollar bills go? If we start from my house, we'll have enough dollar bills to go all the way south to Disney World in Orlando. Then we'll still have enough to go clear across the country to Disneyland! But, even then, we are not out of dollar bills, so we can go north and make it all the way to Portland, Oregon. Still, we have dollar bills, enough to make it all the way east to Portland, Maine. And, fortunately, we'll have enough to make it back to my house near DC, completing the loop. 
Do we have any dollars bills left? Yes! We would still have enough dollar bills to go all the way around the loop a second time! Now imagine that you walk, bike or drive for as long as you want around the double loop, and when you decide to stop, you stoop over and pick up one dollar bill. Your chance of selecting the lucky dollar bill is one in 175 million, the same as your chance of winning the Powerball jackpot! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronald-l-wasserstein/chances-of-winning-powerball-lottery_b_3288129.html |
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Quoted: I don't make fun of your retirement investments so don't make fun of mine.  Went over well he said. |
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Quoted: I posted this in the Powerball thread where everyone is day dreaming about what they are going to buy when they win. Some people have already developed detailed plans what they will do when they win. The truth is that none of you will ever win. The odds are so colossal that it's almost impossible to fathom with the human mind. I challenge anyone to run this simulator and actually win the powerball. I've had it running for over a week before with nothing. So far I've been running it 10 minutes with 25,000 tickets bought for 220 years played and nothing. Instructions: Select Max speed and then select only the jackpot prize and click Start http://powerballsim.appspot.com/ I used to play the Powerball sometimes but not anymore I can see the replies now "but someone has to win!", that's true, even though the Powerball goes through many weeks with no winners despite hundreds of millions of people playing. Like I said, the odds are hard to understand. If anyone wins on the simulator post it up, I'll keep mine running all day Better return for me on the idiot tax than my income tax! |
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Quoted: You're paying the $4 to daydream all week Not to win. I'll buy a ticket when it passes the $300 million mark, which is like 2-3 times a year. Six whole dollars. That's less than buying lunch, less than a box of cheap Tula ammo. I'm not basing my retirement about winning the lottery. Just my dreams of clicking every "add to cart" button I can find on the LaRue and TNVC websites.
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Quoted: Something about better odds of getting hit by lighting and bitten by a great white shark in the same year, living in IOWA. Who cares still more fun to dream about winning, I waist $$$ on worse things. What's funny is I've never heard of anyone being bit by a shark and struck by lightning in the same year. Lottery is entertainment money. You play it for the fun of the daydream understanding the liklihood of winning is essentially zero. |
| I used to buy tickets once or twice a week when I smoked and had a reason to go into a convenience store all the time. Now I rarely buy tickets because I don't go in them near as often. It's still fun to spend a couple dollars on some tickets and think about how many hookers I would bang and how much blow I would do if I won it all. |
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scroll down, choose numbers, continuous. Odds get way better, or at least win percentage increases at a higher rate. Just tried this in a 2nd window. Had one $10,000 winner in the first 1,000 tickets with a $3.80 return. But now it's quickly going back down to $0.08 |
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So I spend a dollar or two per week OP.
What are you doing with your money that is such a huge return on investment that only requires 1 or 2 bucks per week? You what OP? You bought a can of energy drink for a $1? Please tell me more about how your investment is better or better gratifying? Also psst, the mega millions has significantly better odds and is cheaper (by almost half price) to play
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I posted this in the Powerball thread where everyone is day dreaming about what they are going to buy when they win. Some people have already developed detailed plans what they will do when they win. The truth is that none of you will ever win. The odds are so colossal that it's almost impossible to fathom with the human mind. so people cant dream what they would do? who died and made you boss? 
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I've played the Powerball since BEFORE it was Powerball (it was called "Lotto America"). That's been over 25 years. I've never won more than $5. And that only happens MAYBE once a year. I don't spend a lot of money on it. Just a buck per draw generally. It allows me to dream of that kind of wealth. Having said that... lately I've really been bogging-down on the practice and have been letting the wife purchase it instead. It's a pathetic waste of money and a "stupid tax" indeed... 
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Just tried this in a 2nd window. Had one $10,000 winner in the first 1,000 tickets with a $3.80 return. But now it's quickly going back down to $0.08 Quoted:
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scroll down, choose numbers, continuous. Odds get way better, or at least win percentage increases at a higher rate. Just tried this in a 2nd window. Had one $10,000 winner in the first 1,000 tickets with a $3.80 return. But now it's quickly going back down to $0.08 Same, my win boxes all had a hit up to the second 100 within a few games. Now it is on the decline again. Neat though. My grandfather had a gambling problem. Would drive to the store 2-3 times a day to buy lotto. Won it big (big cardboard check) a few times. Guess he reinvested it all into lotto though. |
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This. I'll buy a ticket when it passes the $300 million mark, which is like 2-3 times a year. Six whole dollars. That's less than buying lunch, less than a box of cheap Tula ammo. I'm not basing my retirement about winning the lottery. Just my dreams of clicking every "add to cart" button I can find on the LaRue and TNVC websites. Quoted:
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You're paying the $4 to daydream all week
Not to win. I'll buy a ticket when it passes the $300 million mark, which is like 2-3 times a year. Six whole dollars. That's less than buying lunch, less than a box of cheap Tula ammo. I'm not basing my retirement about winning the lottery. Just my dreams of clicking every "add to cart" button I can find on the LaRue and TNVC websites. Exactly how I play it here in WA state. I think its called PowerBall or MegaTicket or something like that. When I see its total jackpot has hit the +$300million mark ... it's time to invest a $1 and buy 1 ticket. I noticed the last time I bought a ticket approx. 8 months ago the price had gone up to $2ea ticket. Which makes me want to never play it again on principal. But I will probably invest $2 in 'the dream' if I happen to notice the jackpot swell to the 300 million mark. |
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What makes you think that? Because the government who tells you the unemployment rate is 5% says so? Quoted:
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the lottery is a tax on stupidity - Someone Smart This But somebody does win. What makes you think that? Because the government who tells you the unemployment rate is 5% says so? 
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So I spend a dollar or two per week OP. What are you doing with your money that is such a huge return on investment that only requires 1 or 2 bucks per week? You what OP? You bought a can of energy drink for a $1? Please tell me more about how your investment is better or better gratifying? Also psst, the mega millions has significantly better odds and is cheaper (by almost half price) to play It's a mindset I believe. Poor people think like poor people and make poor people mistakes, rich people think like rich people and avoid poor people mistakes. |
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greater chances of winning by playing the same number? I'm testing it along with one that is picking different numbers each time. They both are approaching the same return on $ slowly. I did get an early $10,000 winner on the one where I picked my own numbers but it just might have been luck. Picking random numbers: $0.08 return Picking the same numbers: $0.30 return Will post the results in an hour |