# Can On-Line Lottery Formulas Actually Win? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154 "2024-05-27T20:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/41 "2024-05-29T18:49:45Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I have a system that is guaranteed to double your chances of winning a lottery. I will give you detailed instructions on using this system for the low low cost of only $100. Like I said, the only people who make money on systems are those who are selling systems. Those who buy systems … well, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/42 "2024-05-29T21:42:00Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Like I said, the only people who make money on systems are those who are selling systems. A friend and I each received $20 in free casino tokens for buying tickets to the casino’s Thanksgiving Buffet. We were sitting side-by-side at the slot machines. On his first pull, he won $130. He turned to me and said, “I’m going to sell lessons!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2024, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/43 "2024-05-31T10:03:36Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > But for me, the odds of actually winning one of those huge Mega Millions prizes are so close to zero as to be functionally identical. Plus, wtf are you going to do with 500 million (assuming you actually get that after taxes) if you DO win? Buy your own country? Florida had this relatively high odds game, Jackpot Triple Play, which I figured out may have been marginally rational to bet on IF it rolled over to the $3 million ceiling it had, since you got 3 numbers for a buck (odds a bit over 3 million:1), so I tried it here and there whenever it did. Got $20 once, whee. The $2.2 mil after taxes (and assuming nobody else won-it often rolled over precisely because few played it) would put 99% of anybody into the comfortable for life category, so why get greedy and play the much less likely mega jackpots? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/44 "2024-05-31T12:24:46Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Doesn’t matter how often I reboot my computer, it will not repeat a sequence of random numbers. If theirs did, that is not an excusable mistake in the implementation. In fact, I assume their code would have been audited, so the whole thing is pretty fishy. Inexcusable, but hard to notice it anywhere other than Montreal. Once the problem was noted, the implementation was - obviously - corrected. As I recall, the issue was a certain sequence was likely to repeat (something like 1 in 40) so not terribly obvious, but some people have nothing better to do to win thousands of dollars. > [@wolfpup](#): > > The existence of “lottery formulas” as per the OP’s premise is based on the human tendency to see patterns where there aren’t any. This is so deeply ingrained, in fact, that it can result in a phenomenon called pareidolia, which can be audio or visual. Audio pareidolia, for example, is a phenomenon where you think you hear voices or songs in what is actually the white noise of a fan. I recall a radio program once discussing this, in regard to backward messages in rock songs. The fellow played a song backward, it sounded like gibberish. Then he says "do you hear them saying “‘The girl with the weasel in her mouth’?” When the same clip was replayed, you could hear that. Our brain is trained to try to understand words, we make words out of random sounds if we think we know what is being said. Plus, visually, it’s why we see eyes or faces in random patterns in the dark, or on Mars; or Jesus burned into our toast. > [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Plus, wtf are you going to do with 500 million (assuming you actually get that after taxes) if you DO win? Buy your own country? If you have to ask… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/45 "2024-05-31T16:25:19Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > The fellow played a song backward, it sounded like gibberish. Then he says "do you hear them saying “‘The girl with the weasel in her mouth’?” When the same clip was replayed, you could hear that That reminds me of this: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JbueQpmh_8A/maxresdefault.jpg "What do you hear? Bart Simpson Bouncing, Rotating Pirate Ship, That Isn't My Receipt etc.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbueQpmh_8A) Depending on which one you are reading, you may hear something different. (Some work better than others.) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2024, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/46 "2024-06-01T06:48:48Z")
I’ve mentioned my favorite local drawing a few times. It is a Queen of Hearts drawing. Right now the jackpot is $390,000. On a typical week at this stage of the game about 30,000 people buy tickets each week. If you buy 10 tickets your odds of having a ticket drawn are 3,000 to 1. Of course you still have to have the right number selected. There are 42 remaining numbers right now. The previous 2 games have gone to $3-4 million in the pot. But even when it gets down to only a handful of numbers remaining only about 50-60,000 people play each week. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2024, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154/47 "2024-06-01T12:39:10Z")
Sounds like the “Chase the Ace”. I saw some news items about this a few years ago in the Maritime provinces - some local charity running the contest there, and as the pot go into the hundreds of thousands, it turned into a feeding frenzy in the region to get tickets. The other was some radio bingo out west, where the 52-or-less had climbed to a million or more. The charity complained people were chasing their ticket distributors and staking out stores that sold the bingo cards. Once again proving the adage, “your odds get much better when you actually buy a ticket.” (It’s like the old joke about the fellow who goes and prays every weekend for years, “Oh Lord! Please help out a poor man like me and let me win the lottery! It’s all I ask of you…” One day, he’s praying when a big cloud forms above him, a giant hand comes out of it, the finger points at him, and voice booms out… _“Bob, you cheap bastard!! You could help me out by buying a ticket once in a while…”_ ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-on-line-lottery-formulas-actually-win/1002154.md?page=2)