Gambling 101: Don't play Wednesday's Powerball with numbers from birthdates or anniversaries. Play only numbers 32 through 69.

Joanimaroni wrote:

Bob wrote:SheWrites and Joani,

I promise that when I win the powerball and buy the Seville Tower,  I'm going to give each of you two full floors in the building.
If I can't make do with six floors and a rooftop,  then that would just be being greedy.

Bob I appreciate that....I will look forward to watching free baseball games from your rooftop....next powerball.

Next time I'm playing all low numbers,  Joani.  lol

Bob wrote:No,  not two,  but five of the 6 numbers drawn were below 31. 

You're right, of course, Bob.  I was obviously looking at the wrong set of numbers at the time; don't know where they came from. Sorry about that.

And I do get that your entire point was about not having to split the pot if you did happen to win.  Still, I think I'll stick with quick picks myself, since, according to one lottery commission official, historically, 75% of winners have had machine-selected numbers.   So, you see, what it is, is, I'd rather be a winner of something all day long than a winner of nothing worried about splitting that nothing with somebody else.  

Is that so hard to understand?    

RealLindaL wrote: 75% of winners have had machine-selected numbers.  

I would guess that's probably because 75% of tickets sold are machine selected.

Here's something which is an incontrovertible fact.  Any ticket with it's numbers selected by a machine,  has exactly the same chance of winning as ANY other number combination,  regardless of whether a machine or a human selected the numbers.
There is zero way to get any advantage on having a winning ticket by how the numbers are selected.

It's no different than a coin toss.  If a human selects a head or tail,  or if a machine selects a head or tail,  the outcome is still 50/50.  Nothing can change that.

Bob, my Powerball ticket was a quick pick.

Joanimaroni wrote:Bob, my Powerball ticket was a quick pick.

The way you and RealLindaL chose your tickets is as good as any,  joani. 

My little strategy is confined ONLY to the question of which would be the best WINNING ticket to be holding once the winning numbers have been drawn.
And whether a WINNING ticket will likely have to share the winnings with more or fewer winning tickets.

BUT NOTICE,  in order for my strategy to have any effect,  FIRST WE HAVE TO POSSESS THE WINNING TICKET.
AND SINCE THE ODDS OF THAT HAPPENING ARE ONE IN 292 MILLION,  we really don't need to be holding our breaths. 
In other words,  I aint likely going to be living in no skyscrapers.  lol

Bob wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:Bob, my Powerball ticket was a quick pick.

The way you and RealLindaL chose your tickets is as good as any,  joani. 

My little strategy is confined ONLY to the question of which would be the best WINNING ticket to be holding once the winning numbers have been drawn.
And whether a WINNING ticket will likely have to share the winnings with more or fewer winning tickets.

BUT NOTICE,  in order for my strategy to have any effect,  FIRST WE HAVE TO POSSESS THE WINNING TICKET.
AND SINCE THE ODDS OF THAT HAPPENING ARE ONE IN 292 MILLION,  we really don't need to be holding our breaths. 
In other words,  I aint likely going to be living in no skyscrapers.  lol

The odds would have been better if they didn't sell so many tickets.

Joanimaroni wrote:

The odds would have been better if they didn't sell so many tickets.

The odds of winning are always the same.  If they sell a million tickets,  the odds of any given ticket being the winner is 292 million to one.
If they sell a billion tickets,  the odds of any given ticket being the winner is still 292 million to one.   

But yes,  as the number of total ticket sales goes up,  so does the likelihood of there being multiple winning tickets sold.

What the government lotteries figured out is,  the number of tickets they sell correlates to the size of the jackpot.   Or put another way,  as the size of the jackpot increases,  the number of tickets sold also increases.

But the casinos had already figured this out with their slot machine play.
When casino slot machine jackpots were limited to only a few thousand dollars,  the total play was smaller.  But when they started doing "progressive" jackpots which paid into the millions of dollars,  the overall slot machine play increased.

Which brings us to a myth that so many have about legalized gambling.
Most people believe casinos do things to try to avoid paying out big jackpots.
Nothing could be further from the truth.  The casinos LOVE paying out the biggest jackpots.  Because all that does is stimulate more play and make them more profits.

The only goal of all casinos and and all lotteries and all legalized gambling,  is to do anything they can do TO GET MORE PEOPLE INTO THE CASINO TO GAMBLE OR TO GET MORE PEOPLE INTO THE CONVENIENCE STORES TO BUY LOTTERY TICKETS.  Nothing else matters to them.
Why?  Because the more people gambling always translates into higher profits for the house.  Period.

That's why they were willing to pay Frank Sinatra and Elvis so much money to perform in Las Vegas.  For only one reason.  It brought in more gamblers which is all any casino cares about.  Because the house always wins and the house always wins more when the amount of the play goes up.  Regardless if the house is a casino or a government lottery.
About the only real difference in the two,  is the lottery gives back A LOT LESS percentage of the money wagered to the players than the casino does.  lol

I learned something the other day for the first time that is rather remarkable.  This is not directly on point,  but it is related to the gambling industry and also helps us understand how we really do now have a "global economy".

You may not be aware of it,  but all of a sudden the Vegas gambling corporations (Sands,  MGM,  etc) are losing lots of money.  Almost unprecedented amounts of money.
And that's EVEN THOUGH their Las Vegas casino properties ARE MAKING lots of money.

Why?  Because of China,  what else.  lol

Legalized casino gambling in China was modeled after the U.S in the sense that China wanted to isolate it all in one location (the way it was for decades in the U.S. when legal casino gambling was isolated in Nevada).
The Chinese chose Macau as their gambling capital.  And in 2002,  they opened it up to allow U.S. casino corporations to open casinos there.

U.S. casino corporations then began to invest billions of dollars into casino operations in Mccau.
As a result,  the gambling "strip" in Macau is now SEVEN TIMES LARGER than the strip in Las Vegas.

BUT,  as you know the economy has been collapsing in China.  And in February 2015, the gambling revenue in Macau fell by 48.6 percent from a year earlier,  the biggest decline that has ever been recorded.
And that's why the Las Vegas casino corporations are losing their asses.