1.3 Billion Dollar Powerball Jackpot

If you haven't kept up with this latest eye popper - the huge jackpot - maybe you should read some of the articles discouraging people from buying a powerball ticket. I liken them to articles telling people why they shouldn't start their own business.

Mind you, I'm not telling you to gamble. I'm telling you to read and make up your own mind about the logic behind these articles.

For example, one article suggests it is too risky to spend $20 to buy a ticket even though the prize is over a billion bucks. The explanation goes something like this:

The statistical formula used to determine the profitability of the play (buying a ticket) says you will lose money even if you win. Since I don't want to get into the math, I'll just toss in this bloviation:

If people never put up their money to start a business where would we be? The statistics are almost the same for people who start businesses. If you do the math, your business will fail within the first year or not go beyond the third or fifth year. In other words all those dollars were lost.

On the other hand, you could hit the jackpot. The jackpot being whatever you are willing to accept. I'll use Gordon's postcards idea as an example.

Gordon says fly low and collect the dough. He even showed us how to do it with postcards. Let's say he followed the math wizards and didn't share his story. Wouldn't we all be losers?

And, to boot, by not sharing he wouldn't even have given us a chance to buy a ticket. I think the real answer is how much is that $20 worth to you? If it is $20, don't buy a ticket or start a business. But if its potential worth to you is $1.3 billion or thereabouts, then maybe you might get off your bohunkus and take the initial step.

Just my 2¢ on advice we get from experts who talk a good game but wouldn't walk onto the field if it was strewn with $100 bills.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by sandalwood

If you haven't kept up with this latest eye popper - the huge jackpot - maybe you should read some of the articles discouraging people from buying a powerball ticket.

Hi Tom,

I have a mathematician friend who used to make money from the casino. He had figured out a system where the odds were that he would always come out ahead of the casino (financially speaking).

He purposely never won too much, so he could "fly under the radar." He lived off of the casino for around 2 years.

Eventually they caught on to him - and banned him! Casinos don't like winners (but if you're a constant loser, they love you)!

He told me about another way some people make moolah from gambling...

Gangs of people will watch the poker machines. If they see a little old lady who's played a poker machine for a long time, but hasn't won yet... They'll kick her off and start playing themselves!

The payoff from a poker machine relates to how much money has been put into it, without someone yet winning. The longer it's been played without a win, the more it will pay out, when it eventually does!

It can get to a stage where the odds are you'll make more out of the poker machine, than you would put in!

But to get to that stage, you have to watch the poker machines that have been played a lot, but haven't paid out for a long time. Then, the gangster's way is to forcibly take over the machine!

That way, they make those poker machines pay! (The people they kicked off are not so lucky, as it's their money the gangsters are taking!)

The same principle can happen with Powerball. If the payoff is big enough, and if the number of ticket sales are small enough, the odds can actually be in your favor...

This is about the only way I know how to make math pay!

The One Time It’s Mathematically Advantageous to Play Powerball
http://time.com/money/4172196/powerb...dds-advantage/

Best wishes,

Dien

Funny you bring up casinos. I happen to live in NV where casinos are on almost every corner. When my wife and I eat out at this one particular casino I always play one certain Poker machine. I won't go into how I selected that machine or we will be here all night. Suffice it to say it talked to me one day.

It is the end machine on a criss cross aisle. There are some other end machines up against a wall so hence no criss cross aisle. I don't always win but, at the moment, am ahead of the curve.

My math is simple. If my purse is 50% above my initial deposit. I cash out. I have cashed out when it was only 10% because the machine that was giving turned into a machine that is now taking. My "bankroll" is $20 which is also what I spend on powerball btw.

Hence your comments about math are spot on even if you use my extremely non-thinker method.

Thanks for your remarks and Happy New Year!

Tom

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Tom,

I have a mathematician friend who used to make money from the casino. He had figured out a system where the odds were that he would always come out ahead of the casino (financially speaking).

He purposely never won too much, so he could "fly under the radar." He lived off of the casino for around 2 years.

Eventually they caught on to him - and banned him! Casinos don't like winners (but if you're a constant loser, they love you)!

He told me about another way some people make moolah from gambling...

Gangs of people will watch the poker machines. If they see a little old lady who's played a poker machine for a long time, but hasn't won yet... They'll kick her off and start playing themselves!

The payoff from a poker machine relates to how much money has been put into it, without someone yet winning. The longer it's been played without a win, the more it will pay out, when it eventually does!

It can get to a stage where the odds are you'll make more out of the poker machine, than you would put in!

But to get to that stage, you have to watch the poker machines that have been played a lot, but haven't paid out for a long time. Then, the ganger's way is to forcibly take over the machine!

That way, they make those poker machines pay! (The people they kicked off are not so lucky, as it's their money the gangster's are taking!)

The same principle can happen with Powerball. If the payoff is big enough, and if the number of ticket sales are small enough, the odds can actually be in your favor...

This is about the only way I know how to make math pay!

The One Time It’s Mathematically Advantageous to Play Powerball
http://time.com/money/4172196/powerb...dds-advantage/

Best wishes,

Dien