# Would you have a better chance of winning lotto if...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-better-chance-of-winning-lotto-if/42438>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 23, 2000, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-better-chance-of-winning-lotto-if/42438 "2000-11-23T12:16:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![sethdallob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@sethdallob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethdallob)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2000, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-better-chance-of-winning-lotto-if/42438/21 "2000-11-24T08:52:00Z")

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With all of this talk of expectation and law of averages, we’re kinda forgetting the entire point (in English).

The lottery balls have no memory.

The odds of any combination of balls coming up are the same as any other combination.

The numbers you choose have no effect on the selection of the balls.

Ergo, nothing you do makes a difference, so picking random numbers for 20 years has the same probability of winning as picking the same numbers for 20 years (with the infinitesimal differences involved with people picking birthdays, etc.).

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**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-a-better-chance-of-winning-lotto-if/42438/22 "2000-11-24T17:17:41Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by \*\*\*Phydeaux \*\*  
> This actually came up in a stats class I took in Grad school. According to my professor, the odds stated on the tickets are set by one play, one time. Thus - they odds are set for the same numbers each play because each time the balls are drawn, it’s one play, one time. (It doesn’t matter how many “sets” of numbers you buy - the odds are the same because only one draw is made).
> 
> However!
> 
> He stated that if you choose random numbers each time you play, he said that “your” odds of winning are now squared from the original odds because now you have entered randomness on your end of the game rather than there only being randomness on the draw side of the game.

This guy is teaching stats at _grad_ level?!? Adding randomness on your end of the game changes nothing. Your professor was wrong.

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