[BNM] [OT] Lottery puzzle

[Alex Farran]

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:48 AM, Jason Bailey <jasonslbailey at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

>
> Also the one in 14 million answer doesn't account for others
> winning/participating. That just accounts for you getting the six numbers
> right. Highly unlikely but for say a 20 million pound jackpot someone might
> go and buy ~13.84 million tickets to ensure that they have a winning ticket,
> but then so may someone else (or more) and so the jackpot will be shared.
> What are the chances of 3 people getting the winning ticket if 60 million
> tickets are bought etc....?
>

I believe someone tried it once.  Not on the UK lottery, but the principles
were the same.  They calculated that they had a high enough probability of
winning if they waited for a double rollover.  Though if you have that much
money and brains there are probably more profitable places to invest it.


> I think you up your chances of increasing your winnings by accounting for
> the smaller wins (4 balls etc, if they still happen??).


 You're right, but that's too much like hard work right now! I think I'll
have to dig out my A level maths books and revise the permutations,
combinations and probability chapters before tackling that.


> This bloke has written a few books on game theory:
> http://www.maths.sussex.ac.uk/Staff/JH/
>
> Thanks. I'll take a look.

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