Lottery - Thoughts

JoS1972

Ok I've been pondering on this one for about a week now and since its Friday I thought I'd put this one out there for peoples thoughts.

We know someone (not well but my husband plays sports with him at the weekends) who has just won over £1mill on the lottery. Very nice man so good luck to him :beer:.

So that then made us start thinking (as you do), if we were to do the lottery has this lessend our chances of winning?

I know the answer is probably not and that our chances would still be slim to none:rotfl:, but I'm just curious what other people think if they were in this situation.

phatbear

Kinda lost me on this.

If memory serves you have a 1 in approx 47million chance of winning the jackpot on the lottery so why would knowing someone whos one it have any impact on you. For example you have as much chance of winning it as I do, the only way you can effect your chances of winning is either buy more tickets or not play at all

phatbear

Another quick point people assume the lottery is a living thinking thing, makes me chuckle when people say "ooooh I was really close i had 12, 25, 36 and 13 26 and 37 came up" of course these numbers which dropped are no closer to the ones chosen than 1, 2 & 3 just people associate closeness with numerical order, thats part the genius of lottery it helps people think they are close when they are'nt.

Also more thing I think lucky dips should be renamed to "random dips" as there is nothing lucky about them, hell when I was a kid when I went to xmas fayre and tried the lucky dip I ended up with a lot more than wrapping paper

JoS1972

phatbear wrote: »

Also more thing I think lucky dips should be renamed to "random dips" as there is nothing lucky about them, hell when I was a kid when I went to xmas fayre and tried the lucky dip I ended up with a lot more than wrapping paper

It was a lucky dip that he won on so in his case it was lucky.

Sorry maybe I didn't make myself clear in my question/thought. All I was wondering is if it would make other people stop and think twice before buying a ticket, even if it was only for a split second. I know it doesn't reduce my chances, but I have to admit on Saturday it did make me wonder while I was waiting to be served.

tangyfog

Your chances of winning has not changed. However you chance of benefiting from being a lottery winning has gone from zero percent to 1 in 14 million when you buy a £1 ticket.

Based on a risk reward model. You are better of buying a ticket as your risk is £1 but your reward is £1,000,000 even though the chance of being a lotto winner is small. However it is better to
take many of the situation that issues a good reward with little risk to yourself. doing this for a long period of time should reward your hamsomely.

Enter prizes draws ever time you see one and enter £1 raffles etc and you will find you will do quite well.

So far I have won £50 twice on the premium bonds even thought I have only £100 worth of bonds. so that 100 percent return in 3 years of owning them!

Also I won a mp3 player and got £50 for doing a survey.

So go and buy £1 and no more! That remind me I need to do this saturday lotto.

phatbear

JoS1972 wrote: »

It was a lucky dip that he won on so in his case it was lucky.

Sorry maybe I didn't make myself clear in my question/thought. All I was wondering is if it would make other people stop and think twice before buying a ticket, even if it was only for a split second. I know it doesn't reduce my chances, but I have to admit on Saturday it did make me wonder while I was waiting to be served.

But how many lucky dips get sold and win nowt?

If anything if I knew someone who won it would be probably make me realise that winning is real, i.e not a pipe dream that happens to people you dont know etc.

loveGSDs

i play £1 on a sat and £1 on a wed. although i know i have almost 0% chance of winning i still play and cling onto the hope that 'it could be me' :rotfl:

have to say tho, im not impressed with the amount you win for 5 numbers, thats rubbish prizes for almost getting full house!

also, i wish they would give say 5 people £1 million instead of giving 1 person £5 million

keza

you have to be in it to win it! :beer:

saltnvinegar

There was a story in the papers a while ago about a couple who were struggling financially who had to buy nappies for their children and so didn't buy their usual weekly lottery ticket (they played the same numbers every week).

Their numbers then came up.......... imagine how gutted they were. However the story doesn't end there..............

A couple of months later the wife had a premonition that they had a lottery win so placed the same numbers on the euromillions.

They won the jackpot!!

So putting aside the odds of the same numbers being drawn on the Lotto and Euromillions what are the odds of the same people putting the same numbers on?

As said, you've got to be in it to win it!

I don't think your odds have dropped at all. If you're destined to win it you will.

Best

SnV

JasX

Someone can perhaps confirm / contradict me by actually doing the sums but I heard that returns on premium bonds had slipped so far these days you have a better expected payout if you put £1000 in a savings account and spend the 2-3% interest on lottery tickets rather than buying £1000 of premium bonds...

used to be a fan of Premium bonds but now seriously considering ditching them and popping the odd £1 a fortnight on the lottery as a serious investment strategy

The_Matelot

I do the lotto evry saturday and use the same five lines of numbers. If i win A tenner then it goes on on a wednesday. So far i have won about three tenners and one 4 ball (£87!) one day will be my day!