Odds against winning UK National Lottery - c. 14,000,000/1

[buggi]

The thing with the lottery is that each draw is a completely separate event. Any one combination of balls has as much chance as any other. While the chances of someone picking 2 winning lines is improbable it's not impossible. The odds of either line coming up are the same, and they're the same as for anyone else's line.

@buggi There's no need to be cynical, unless Camelot are cheating of course. lol

Still cynical. Remember Who Wants to be a Millionaire when the wife and friend helped the husband cheat. I found it strange that the friend had also been in the chair only a couple of weeks before when supposedly contestants were picked completely randomly from tens of thousands that phone in.

 

[swansonj]

Agree, not a very good return. Must have spent about £100 over the last 12 months, but next week,who knows!.

Never mind "not a very good return", it's slightly worrying that you use the word "return" at all for something that has lost you a straight £75 ...

 

[andyfraser]

Still cynical. Remember Who Wants to be a Millionaire when the wife and friend helped the husband cheat. I found it strange that the friend had also been in the chair only a couple of weeks before when supposedly contestants were picked completely randomly from tens of thousands that phone in.

True randomness does weird things to people's minds.

I remember the story that when Apple added shuffle play to iTunes people complained that it wasn't random because it would sometimes pick several tunes from a single album, sometimes putting them together and sometimes in order. What Apple found was that the way a truly random algorithm will pick tunes and what a human perceives as random are two different things. The algorithm was changed to appear more random but in fact was less random as a result.

I don't know whether WWTBAM cheated or not but it's possible for two people who know each other to be picked randomly from all those who phone in. And like that Apple story.

 

[buggi]

True randomness does weird things to people's minds.

I remember the story that when Apple added shuffle play to iTunes people complained that it wasn't random because it would sometimes pick several tunes from a single album, sometimes putting them together and sometimes in order. What Apple found was that the way a truly random algorithm will pick tunes and what a human perceives as random are two different things. The algorithm was changed to appear more random but in fact was less random as a result.

I don't know whether WWTBAM cheated or not but it's possible for two people who know each other to be picked randomly from all those who phone in. And like that Apple story.

Well I wish I was part of this randomness

 

[Accy cyclist]

I don't know which is worse? The disappointment when you see the numbers and realise you've not won again. Or the anxiety of the possibility of seeing the numbers and realising you would've won if you still did the thing.