NationStates Jolt Archive

For any given line in the UK National Lottery, there is a 1 in 1*10^10 (1 in 10,000,000,000) chance of winning the jackpot.

Last year, there were approximately 4.25 billion tickets sold (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2014364.stm). That works out to approximately 41,000,000 for every draw (wednesday or saturday).

In other words, the odds of the jackpot being won are about 1 in 250, or one every two and a half years.

Even without knowing the actual number of jackpot winners every year, that number is clearly nothing like what it is.

Another piece of evidence that the Lottery isn't totally fair is the way they always make one ball sit exactly on the tiny little plastic column. That's not going to happen normally. Try it yourslelves if you don't believe me. I used to think it was magnets, but now I'm not sure. If it was magnets, how do they always have only one ball?

So, anyone care to speculate on what's going on here?

So, anyone care to speculate on what's going on here?
No, I don't care.

it's called chance. Seperate instances don't follow the statistics

it's called chance. Seperate instances don't follow the statistics

But the deviation is huge. from one in every 250 to roughly 1 out of every 2 (and i think I'm being generous there). Don't tell me you find that reasonable.

No, I don't care.

Yum, spam!

It's pretty simple, really -- you can come up with as many statistics as you want, but if nobody picks the right numbers, nobody wins. Statistics don't always play out in practice, certainly not when probability is concerned. For instance, if you throw a dice repeatedly, you have a one in six chance of getting a six. So statistically you should be getting a six once every six throws. But that doesn't mean you couldn't throw it one hundred times in a row and never once get a six. It's only probable that you will get a six once every six throws.

Your numbers are wrong. The number of combinations for the main game of choosing 6 figures from 49 are 49C6, approx 14 million. So each ticket has a 1 in 14,000,000 chance of success. I can't check your sales figures, because your link is broken, but it looks to me like you're adding together sales from all the various games.

I would guess somewhere in the region of 5-10m ticket sales for the jackpot games each week, so a jackpot being won every week or two on average sounds right.

I don't follow the lottery, so I don't know about this plastic column of which you speak, but is it hollow? If it is, they're probably using a gentle vacuum pump or something to ensure the ball is in position for the camera shot.

It's pretty simple, really -- you can come up with as many statistics as you want, but if nobody picks the right numbers, nobody wins. Statistics don't always play out in practice, certainly not when probability is concerned.
Aargh! Maybe they don't precisely, but they most certainly do in general. Otherwise:

A. Statistics as a subject would have died at birth, some two hundred years ago
B. Mathematics would have been shown to fail as a system of logic and measurement


For instance, if you throw a dice repeatedly, you have a one in six chance of getting a six. So statistically you should be getting a six once every six throws. But that doesn't mean you couldn't throw it one hundred times in a row and never once get a six. It's only probable that you will get a six once every six throws.
If you repeatedly make a hundred dice throws each minute you would expect to get no sixes in each 100 throws about once every 150 years.

The National Lottery is a tool of Capitalist opression, designed to fool the people into thinking that they will one day join the ruling elite and so dissuading them from trying to change the system.

Still, I'm prepared to let them off today because I've just one £2 on a scratch card! YAY! :)

Hi, I am La Habana Cuba,
I knew a native Cuban man in Miami who won the lottery,
he was a neighborhood drunk, he slept many a times at an abandoned gas station next to the supermarket where he won the lottery.

He changed his life around, he stopped drinking or
drinks moderately now, he wears a suit and tie, he bought
the supermarket where he won the lottery, and bought several other businesses in the area he used to hangout
drunk, and he bought a big mansion like house.

Why would the government be giving away extra money? I can understand if you were saying more people should win, but fixing a contest so you lose money is retarded.

You're probably misinterpereting the numbers.

The National Lottery is a tool of Capitalist opression, designed to fool the people into thinking that they will one day join the ruling elite and so dissuading them from trying to change the system.

Still, I'm prepared to let them off today because I've just one £2 on a scratch card! YAY! :)

That's the attitude I was looking for! :D


Your numbers are wrong. The number of combinations for the main game of choosing 6 figures from 49 are 49C6, approx 14 million.

Bugger. well, I always was crap at statistics. :)

Why would the government be giving away extra money? I can understand if you were saying more people should win, but fixing a contest so you lose money is retarded.

You're probably misinterpereting the numbers.
the government doesn't pay for this - the jackpot is made up from the ticket sales of the lottery cards. however the govt does co-fund a lot of the lottery's (charity) projects

as for the rigging: i doubt it, but if it were i'd like to know not just how it is done (how they choose the numbers) but also why and who chooses who gets the money... cos i want to be on their list damnit :P