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*The ticket sale simply can't be a zero-sum game* When there is a high jackpot, it almost is a break even proposition.[1] Of course this is not zero-sum in the
by polshaw 14y ago
*The ticket sale simply can't be a zero-sum game*
When there is a high jackpot, it almost is a break even proposition.[1] Of course this is not zero-sum in the medium term because this situation only occurs because it was not won previous weeks. It takes a jackpot of around $120m to be 'fair' (on the powerball lottery).
1. http://users.stat.umn.edu/~geyer/lottery/ http://users.stat.umn.edu/~geyer/lottery/
- Retric 14y agoThat ignores taxes and multiple winners. The Megamillions jackpot hit 640 million and it still had negative expected value. There happened to only be 3 winners, but there could have easily been far more than that. PS: Powerball tickets also cost 2$ now which means you need a larger jackpot to break even.