I seem to recall something about this too. The guy was even allowed to set up his own printing facility to churn out all the tickets.
Here in NY State we have Quick Draw (basically keno every five minutes) available in every bar. They too display the list of the ten numbers that are ‘Hot’ and the ten that are ‘Not’. I love messing with friends who just don’t get the math by first saying, “Oh yeah, 12 and 36 are hot so you should play 'em!” and then immediately saying, “No wait, 12 and 36 are cold, that means they’re due so you should play 'em!!” 
So you’d pay out $350 million now, and if you win you’d get back $350M over 20 years (NPV about $218M at 5%). AND you’d pay taxes on the income. Even if you win, you lose!
I recall when this happened, but am not certain of exact details. As best as I can remember, he organized with a number of other investors so they had enough funds to buy out a state lottery. Then the logistics came into play as they had to wait until the jackpot was large enough that they would see a return on their money.
They were allowed to use pre-printed slips (I know there must be a name for them, but it escapes me.) in order to buy the various tickets with all the different number combinations. I believe this loophole has been closed by most (all?) lotteries to prevent someone from doing similar. The group then had to go to enough different vendors so that they could purchase all their tickets in time.
Here is where I forget the details. They actually were unable to buy all the combinations in time for the drawing, but I can’t recall the the percentage. However, they did have the winning combination in the group of tickets they managed to buy in addition to all the other winning combinations. Unfortunately, I’m don’t recall how much of a return the group got on their investment.
I rarely buy lottery tickets and would never have my numbers that I play all the time. With my luck they would be certain to appear the week I didn’t go to the liquor store.
It was Virginia in 1992. They bought 5 million of the 7 million possible numbers, and won $27 million.
Of course, not managing to buy up all of the tickets but still winning anyway is rather a best-case outcome for them, since it saved them the cost of the tickets they didn’t get a chance to buy.
You mean (in the graped part) because more people play when the jackpot is bigger, I hope?
Problem is, that’s apparently a fairly common combination to play (relatively speaking), so you’ll have to split your pot with a lot more people. I know my dad played that combo back in the day, and I remember reading somewhere that it was very common.
Yes.
Wow, I’m astounded to find out that so many people play 1 thru 6. Even though I know the odds are the same I never do (I always use quick-pick, no such thing as lucky numbers). But I also only play occasionally (when the jackpots get huge).
Not to sound smug, but I suppose people pick the 1-6 combo because they think they are the only ones mathematically sophisticated enough to recognise that that combination has exactly the same chance as any other, and so figure it is extremely unlikely that anyone else will pick it because it psychologically looks wildly improbable. But in truth, there are lots more people than they think thinking exactly the same thing.
If I were a lottery kind of guy, I would have thought it was a good idea too, and I would have been wrong.
Which is a bad idea because if the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 were drawn, you would have to share the prize with probably a couple thousands smartasses who played them.
Whenever there is a rollover I see long queues at the lottery ticket till in the supermarket. It amazes me that people will invest more on tickets for a 20 million jackpot than for a 10 million one. To win either would be life changing and surely, with so many more tickets being sold, the chances of having to share are correspondingly greater.
Many years ago I had a Saturday job in a betting shop. One day a punter won several thousand on an accumulator and I suggested to the manager that he would be upset at losing so much. “Not at all,” he replied. “I will make sure that the local paper gets the story - just watch the queues next week.”
Sorry, I just now saw I completely skipped over the second part of your post where you give exactly the info I give.
Lots of superstitious people out there or people like my dad who have faulty logic: “Nobody will play 1,2,3,4,5,6, so I’ll play it.” My guess is that, being pattern-loving creatures that we are, that any six numbers with an apparent pattern to them (either numerical or a visual pattern on the boxes you fill in when you purchase your ticket) will have an unusual amount of multiple plays.
I find this so extra silly. The idea of planning ahead to not only win, but to try and make sure you’re the only winner! It’s like raising almost_infinity to almost_infinity² !
I also wonder if these people really don’t understand that how many people play also has absolutely no effect on your overall odds of winning (except for the splitting of the jackpot thing). I wonder if some are tin-foil-hat-esque types who think it’s all semi-rigged and they’re ‘beating’ the system by playing numbers they think the ‘people’ who really ‘run’ the lottery figure don’t ever get played.
Speaking of jackpots, did that last $600 million Florida Powerball lone-ticket winner ever come forward?
He’s my dad, and I love 'im, but, to be fair, it’s only one box he’d play out of 10. The rest were normal, “random-looking” bits of numbers. I’ve always kind of in the back of my head wanted the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6 to come up and see what happens with the thousands of people who play those numbers. To think you won a few million only to realize after the fact you’ve won, at most, a couple thousand…
Which part is extra silly? Trying to play numbers you think will be a unique pick?
:dubious: You read pulykamell’s post; you quoted part of it. With a £3.8million pot, each person would win just £380. Hardly almost_infinity.
Uh, yeah. You’re already facing odds of over 175,000,000 to 1 against, and you’re making plans for after you beat those?! Fits my definition of silly…
Interesting game you have here, Dr. Falkien.
It seems the only winning move is not to play.
How about a nice game of chess?
Playing the lottery in the first place is silly.
Playing it in such a way that you maximize the payout if you do happen to win makes it every so slightly LESS silly.