10/26/2005 Archived Entry: "Am I wrong?"

Wednesday night's 6/49 jackpot is 40 Million dollars. Unless I'm wrong, there are only 49 Choose 6 possible combinations in the lottery, more specifically: 13 983 816 choices.

You know what this means? If you buy all possible 13 983 816 combinations, you are guaranteed to win the jackpot! At 2 dollars per game, thats 27 967 632$ needed to make a profit of 12 032 368$.

Lets do this people!! Between all the readers of this site, I'm sure we can collectively come up with 28 M by the end of tomorrow. I've already bought 4 games. The rest is up to you, faithful reader!

(someone please play the Lost numbers)

Replies: 18 comments

Your theory gets shafted if there are multiple winners :(

Posted by Zamir @ 10/26/2005 12:28 AM EST

yes, if there are two winners, we end up loosing roughly 8 million dollars!

Posted by Rayne @ 10/26/2005 12:43 AM EST

of course in the US PowerBall lottery, worth a hundred million or more, there are lots of people playing the Lost numbers. which means that even if you win, you have to split is many ways.

I can only assume many people areplaying the Lost numbers in 6-49 as well.

Posted by sbdep @ 10/26/2005 11:39 AM EST

what the heck are the lost numbers?

Posted by melpie @ 10/26/2005 03:43 PM EST

it's a math thing. our numerical system was once 15 based instead of 10. the lost numbers are the ones that we could no longer form when we moved to a 10 base.

Posted by Rayne @ 10/26/2005 03:48 PM EST

so it doesn't have anything to do with the tv show?

Posted by melpie @ 10/27/2005 09:47 AM EST

noperz!

Posted by Rayne @ 10/27/2005 11:06 AM EST

I'm pretty sure Stephen is referring to the Lost numbers from the TV show...

Posted by dAN @ 10/27/2005 11:23 AM EST

Thai, did you buy your ticket in Alberta?!

Posted by dAN @ 10/27/2005 11:30 AM EST

nopez! I only got one number: 30.

Posted by Rayne @ 10/27/2005 12:54 PM EST

I got 37 and 43 hehe

Posted by Dave @ 10/27/2005 02:31 PM EST

of the 20 tickets i was in on ... 5 had 2 numbers right and 5 had one number right.

so all my investment down the toilet.

that'll teach me for playing the lotto game.

Posted by melpie @ 10/27/2005 03:47 PM EST

Wow...twenty tickets!...curious how many you'd be willing to buy with American lotto winnings that scrape the 400 million dollar mark...:P!

Posted by dAN @ 10/27/2005 05:24 PM EST

American lottery gets taxed like crazy, yes in the end they still get more than we ever will, but they get significantly less than the jackpot.

Posted by anonymous @ 10/27/2005 05:41 PM EST

at least ours is tax free. they can have larger jackpots b/c .. well they have a much larger population and thus a much bigger pool to draw from.

on another note, i didn't buy the 20 tickets for myself. it was an office pool .. i only spent a couple dollars.

Posted by melpie @ 10/28/2005 02:50 PM EST

Hmm...I thought our lottery was taxed as well...surprised its not.

As for taxations in the States, from a $400 million dollar jackpot, I doubt I'd be missing 38% of it that much...;).

Posted by dAN @ 10/28/2005 03:58 PM EST

I think you only get taxed on our lottery if you decide to take the full amount right there, instead of taking it in installments

Posted by Anonymous @ 10/28/2005 05:40 PM EST

nope, no tax on our lottery. just like no tax on casino winnings (in the states, you get taxed on those too ... but then on the flip side, you can claim gambling losses on your personal income tax).

(if you're an american resident winning a canadian lottery, the irs wants you to report it though, and then they'll tax the bejeezus out of you)

Posted by melpie @ 10/31/2005 05:04 PM EST