3 ms·
> In the US, before state run lotteries were present and popular, there were criminal run "numbers games" which were quite similar to lotteries but with much wo
by eadmund 8y ago
> In the US, before state run lotteries were present and popular, there were criminal run "numbers games" which were quite similar to lotteries but with much worse payout ratios and where the criminals that ran them often refused to pay for various reasons.
Do you have a source for that? My recollection from my own reading years ago is that the criminal numbers games tended to pay better odds than modern state-run lotteries.
- dragonwriter 8y agoWikipedia claims 600:1 payout on 999:1 odds was typical. That's about a 60% payout; a published analysis [0] indicates that California lottery games range between under 50% (most games) to nearly 80% (the latter for high-denomination Scratchers.) So, in general, worse than numbers games, though better if you choose the right game. [0] https://wizardofodds.com/games/lottery/california-lottery/ https://wizardofodds.com/games/lottery/california-lottery/