Lottery - improve your odds?

Tiggs_2

its 14m to 1.........trying to "increase the payout" in that way is as pointless as going out with a hard hat on so if a astroid hits you on the head you will have a better shot at living!

whambamboo

Milarky wrote:

Has this occurred to Camelot too? A large proportion of tickets sold are 'lucky dip' (chosen by them) and as a draw approaches they could 'know' which numbers were being clustered by all the millions of entries picked by the players themselves. Thus (I'm sure they've looked into it) they could actually take account of the numbers entered to skew the selection of LD numbers (presumably 'away') from them. [Extreme example every LD consists of the same six numbers - the punters either all win nothing - where some would have won something - or all win something - at least £10]

Any thoughts?

why would they want to do this?

The payout is fixed at 50% (wow that sucks) of ticket sales.

Will.Power_2

I always buy a Lucky Dip, if I buy a ticket. Camelot use a unique combination of numbers for each Lucky Dip, so you're guaranteed to be the only one with those numbers at the time of purchase. Buy your ticket near the closing time and if you get lucky you get the lot.

Remember though, don't look at the ticket when you buy it and don't check your numbers for a couple of months. This way your dream remains alive in your pocket without having to spend another pound on it straight away...!!

Winning the lottery is just a dream; why waste money on it when you can get it for less this way.

Gorgeous_George

Will.Power wrote:

Camelot use a unique combination of numbers for each Lucky Dip, so you're guaranteed to be the only one with those numbers at the time of purchase. Buy your ticket near the closing time and if you get lucky you get the lot.

I didn't know that. If this is true, then a lucky dip is not random. I always thought that, if buying two LDs at the same time, there was a one in 14 million chance that they would be identical.



GG

tomstickland

Whatever numbers you choose the odds still make the lottery a very bad gamble.

Gorgeous_George

Mikeyorks wrote:

Very good ...... now, where's me lottery pin? Oops - rolled under the pile of Premium Bonds again!;)

Is this a Halloween thread?

Martin has shown that PBs are not much better than the lottery. I guess that if you can find the least popular numbers, you can increase your returns (whilst maintaining the same, rubbish odds). This may make the lottery a better gamble than PBs.



GG

Twopints

Gorgeous_George wrote:

I didn't know that. If this is true, then a lucky dip is not random. I always thought that, if buying two LDs at the same time, there was a one in 14 million chance that they would be identical.



GG

I don't think this can be right! There is a 1 in 14m chance of a particular set of numbers occurring so the chance of the same numbers occurring twice at the same time must be a tad higher.

whambamboo

Gorgeous_George wrote:

Martin has shown that PBs are not much better than the lottery. I guess that if you can find the least popular numbers, you can increase your returns (whilst maintaining the same, rubbish odds). This may make the lottery a better gamble than PBs.

Premium bonds are *better* than the lottery for ALL savers (as you imply, by 'not much better').

The return is

60.6%/75.7%/100.96%

for non-tax payers/basic/higher rate versus 50% average for the lottery

There is no way of working out what the return would be for choosing unpopular numbers, and frankly why bother?

Gorgeous_George

Well, I look at it slightly differently.

Say I buy a lucky dip. It's numbers are any 6 numbers from 1 to 49.

Then, I buy a second LD. The chance of the second set being the same as those is 1 in 14million whether I buy them at the same time or a day apart.



GG

whambamboo

Can this thread please be moved off the savings & investments board, as it is neither a savings account nor an investment.