What are the odds of winning the UK euromillion lottery?

noggin1980

Chris75 wrote: »

Forget the odds as that is not what it is about. The odds of winning are so small that the actual number really doesn't matter. The idea is that you can afford to loose £1 (or whatever the ticket costs) in the hope of making a fortune.


I have never purchased a lottery ticket but we had builders who did the National Lottery. The spent very frequent (most) coffee breaks discussing what they were going to do when they won and just what they were going to say to their bank managers (not polite). They got real value for their £1. They knew that they weren't going to win but that just didn't matter as they thought that they just possibly could.

Agreed the lottery is worth the money only if it provides you with something to dream about, something to entertain you while you are stuck in traffic, a way to make your time on the toilet a bit more fun:D

InvestInPoker

noggin1980 wrote: »

the lottery is worth the money

It's not Euromillions its the normal one but


http://uklottosim.appspot.com/


I'm down about £10,000,000 so far

prosaver

Gram_Parsons wrote: »

Okay, here's one for the maths experts. I once got four numbers on the National Lottery AND it was the first four numbers drawn AND I was actually watching the draw live! I can tell you my heart nearly packed in!

So sitting on four out of four and two numbers still to drop - what were the odds at that stage of getting all six?

that happend to me but in the day I won a bet on the grand national (royal athlete ) and watching the loto first 2 numbers came up..then nothing till the last number and won a tenner..:beer:

bowlhead99

noggin1980 wrote: »

it's 116million to one, you've made a few errors such as your chance is not 1/51, it's 5/50, then 4/49, then 3/48, 2/47, 1/46

I am just going to be a pedant and say 117million to one because it's 116.53. Seems bizarre for someone to reopen the thread and say one in 31 billion when the link posted last year takes you to the figure on the Euromillions site which gives the actual odds.

If you put your 2 quid into premium bonds instead you'll win the million pound jackpot every 12.8 billion months and get to keep your capital. Unless you're unluckier than the average, or they change the odds due to interest rate fluctuations while you're waiting.

redbuzzard

If you mean the jackpot, it is for all practical purposes impossible with one ticket.

The fact that somebody usually wins it seems to contradict this, but you are concerned with the odds of it being you.

I did the National Lottery for about 3 months when it first started and we had a syndicate at work. To begin with I just paid my £1 and forgot about it, but as the weeks went by I started to think we might win, and kept looking up the results. That's when I gave up and I must have saved about £1000 since then by not playing.

If you take the UK lottery jackpot odds of c. 1 in 14 million, should you decide to buy a ticket leave it until the day of the draw to make sure you are at least as likely to win the jackpot as die in a road accident, the chance of which on a given day for the average person is about 1 in 10 million.

The point is - most of us don't continually wonder whether this is the week we get hit by a bus, but it seems perfectly reasonable to think we might win the lottery having bought the ticket. Both are about the same scale of chance.

The Euromillions jackpot is even longer odds.

The trouble is, the yew-man brain is not good at probability on an intuitive level - in terms of the way we feel about it, rather than calculate it, the odds are as somebody has already said much closer to evens - we will either win, or we won't. I'd actually say the odds 'feel' nearer 1 in 100 - most people would probably have a sense that it must be coming up to their turn after they have done it for a couple of years!

InvestInPoker

bowlhead99 wrote: »

If you put your 2 quid into premium bonds instead you'll win the million pound jackpot and get to keep your capital.

SailorSam

I'd be surprised if they wrote to me to say i was a winner.
I've never bought a ticket.

noggin1980

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I am just going to be a pedant and say 117million to one because it's 116.53. Seems bizarre for someone to reopen the thread and say one in 31 billion when the link posted last year takes you to the figure on the Euromillions site which gives the actual odds.

If you put your 2 quid into premium bonds instead you'll win the million pound jackpot every 12.8 billion months and get to keep your capital. Unless you're unluckier than the average, or they change the odds due to interest rate fluctuations while you're waiting.

You are undoubtedly right that if your desire is to win a million that premium bonds are a much much smarter way to attempt that aim and as a lottery the EV is much better, it's about -50p on the lottery per pound "invested" and positive 1.35p with premium bonds.

Unfortunately though I don't know about anyone else but I don't dream about winning a million, I dream about winning 100mill and owning my football team, or taking my friends and family around the world etc. a million doesn't do this, in fact I'm not even sure you give up work after winning a mill.

Aegis

Somewhat worse than the odds of being struck by lightning several times. (probably - this comparison may have been made up)

sav500

I once heard it described as a tax on the thick, which it is. You are never going to win. I am.