Primes and Squares

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3:10 AM

@DJMcSpookem This is pretty sweet. It's remarkable how the vast majority of one's winnings come from the $4 prizes but even then, the -92% return on investment means that when you buy a ticket for $2, it's effectively equivalent to handing over $1.84 and immediately lighting the ticket on fire.

Oh wow, I just got lucky and witnessed the first $100 prize. ... After 365k tickets.

Only spent $730,000 to get there!

2 hours later…

DJMcSpookem

4:49 AM

@El'endiaStarman One of the $100 is much more rare. I got several (6? 8?) of one of them and only one of the other

El'endia Starman

I think there are fewer possibilities for red balls than gray, so 3 gray + 1 red is more likely than 4 gray.

> Since October 7, 2015, the game has used a 5/69 (white balls) + 1/26 (Powerballs) matrix from which winning numbers are chosen, resulting in odds of 1 in 292,201,338 of winning a jackpot per play.[1]

Powerball

Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a nonprofit organization formed by an agreement with US lotteries. Powerball's minimum advertised jackpot is $40 million (annuity); Powerball's annuity is paid in 30 graduated installments or winners may choose a lump sum payment instead. One lump sum payment will be less than the total of the 30 annual payments because of the time value of money. Drawings for Powerball are held every Wednesday and Saturday...

DJMcSpookem

I feel like that should be illegal. It's basically just highway robbery

El'endia Starman

Yeah, lotteries are pretty terrible, especially for poor people.

Governments get a significant portion of winnings through taxes though.

Not sure what happens to the excess (after payouts) but some lotteries are intended to help fund education. E.g.:

North Carolina Education Lottery

The North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) is run by the government of North Carolina. It was established after Gov. Mike Easley signed the North Carolina State Lottery Act and the 2005 Appropriations Act.North Carolina has one of the United States' youngest lottery systems, having been enacted in 2005. The North Carolina State Lottery Act created the 9-member Lottery commission who was charged with overseeing all aspects of the education lottery. 100% of North Carolina Lottery net proceeds go directly to benefit the state's education, with the current figure sitting at more than $5.5 billion...

DJMcSpookem

I wonder if that page is deterministic or not. Like, if you left it open for long enough (probably years) and purchased 292,201,338 tickets, would you be guaranteed to get a jackpot?

If you bought tickets entirely randomly, you'd have to purchase about 202 million before you get a 50/50 chance of a jackpot

El'endia Starman

@DJMcSpookem I feel like it's much simpler to pick random numbers, so I'd say it's not deterministic.

DJMcSpookem

5:04 AM

Which means that if you actually bought 292,201,338 tickets, you'd only have a 63% chance

@El'endiaStarman Some of the other pages on there are pretty cool too. I particularly liked the life check list

Spend bill Gates money: neal.fun/spend

And conquer the world: neal.fun/conquer-the-world

El'endia Starman

@DJMcSpookem My actions: buy hamburger, sell hamburger, buy hamburger, sell hamburger... scroll scroll scroll, buy NFL team. Barely made a dent in Gates' money.

@DJMcSpookem No World Cup wins for the USA. :(

DJMcSpookem

@El'endiaStarman I have a 4k TV, and I can confirm they most definitely do not cost 10k

El'endia Starman

@DJMcSpookem 39/66 for me. Given that one of the items is "Get dumped", I'm expecting/hoping that'll never happen so I'll never check everything off. :P

DJMcSpookem

Hey, same here!

9 hours later…