i just know im going to win!

BaZmO*

lisa.c wrote:

its actually 2 euro min to play thats for two panels and if you include the plus the min is 3 euro....

Ooops!! So it is!!

Calibos

BaZmO* wrote:

Nope!

The odds getting 6 numbers in a LOTTO draw that has 42 numbers is 5,245,786-1

You calculate this by multiplying (42 x 41 x 40 x 39 x 38 x 37) and then dividing your answer by the total of (1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6)

Now considering that for your €1.50 you get 2 panels/lines the odds for anybody winning the Lotto in Ireland is 2,622,893-1


B.

I'm no expert on probability (did pass maths in the leaving!) but when you buy your 2 line minimum play I thought it was 2...1 in 5 million chances you got rather than reducing your odds to 1 in 2,622,893 ie if you bought €1000 worth (1,000 lines) by that rationale you would have reduced the odds to 2622 to 1. Could that be right??

Calibos

Pugwash wrote:

I was watching a program on the BBC about the lottery over there. At one point in tha show they talked of the odds of winning. 14million to 1 was the odds quoted.

To really put that in prespective, they went to a bookies who gave them the same odds on elvis, flying a UFO and crashing into the lochness monster.

Remember.....It could be you

To really put it into perspective

The shop gets €10,000 for selling a jackpot winner in the main draw (2000 for a lotto plus 1/2 IIRC) One way of looking at all the tickets we sell is that when people are buying their lotto ticket they are kind of entering us in this shop draw too. (Bare with me here )

We sell about €3-4000 worth of lotto per draw

So say €4000 x 2 draws per week x 52 weeks a year x 15 years = 6,240,000

People have spent €6,240,000 in our shop over the last 15 years to help us win that €10,000. We've sold '1' maindraw winner and 1 lotto plus 1 winner in those 15 years. I wonder has our shop beaten the odds...are we ahead :D

On a sidenote, when we sold the maindraw winning ticket the shop prize was actually IR£5000 back then. Just our luck there was '6' winning tickets that draw. The most shares ever in a jackpot before or since. The shop prize was split between the 6 shops too so we ended up with 833 punts. I don't know who was more disappointed, the jackpot winner who realised he/she was getting 166,000 quid instead of 1 million or us who realised we were getting 833 quid instead of 5,000 :D:D

The lotto plus win isn't shared so we got the full €2,000 No one ever claimed the €300,000 win that we sold so it went back into the pot 3 months later!!

Pugwash

unfortunately, we all dont have a cornershop entitling us to enter this magical shop draw.

imho, playing the lotto is a complete waste of time and money, no matter what the odds. Some may argue that it serves a purpose as it grants funds to worthy causes but i dont feel that the lotto should be patted on the back for supplying support to needy groups which is done in an infinately more effective way by registered charities.

As we all know, there are frequent winners of the lotto jackpot and nine times out of ten, they dont have a system, theyre not out to beat the odds, their win is completely random.

For the shops and the lottery these odds are irrelivant. no matter what the outcome, its a great little money-spinner for the organisation and its agents.

As you said Calimos, your shop stood to make a net revenue of 6,240,000 approx from sold tickets over those fifteen years. the 10,000 win bonus is completely miniscule in comparison.

In the early ninties, the lottery increased the ammount of selectable numbers. The ad campaign was figureheaded by Jack Charlton who phraised the lenghtening of the ridiculous odds as making the game "more interesting" :rolleyes:

The only individuals who had their interests genuinely boosted were the lotto and their agents. They have taken the principals of the casino (ie. the house always wins) and homogenised the image by making it available in such "everyday" locations as the supermarket and the newsagent.

Personally, I find playing the lotto completely redundent.The fact of the matter is that it could be you, but, its always them who hit the jackpot.

aphex™

Pugwash wrote:

The only individuals who had their interests genuinely boosted were the lotto and their agents. They have taken the principals of the casino (ie. the house always wins) and homogenised the image by making it available in such "everyday" locations as the supermarket and the newsagent.

Shops don't have anywhere remotely near the margin casinos have! Shops only make 6% on every ticket sold. The purpose is to get ya into the shop for yer lotto and you'll want to get them milk and the paper there at the same time too kinda thing.

Wow, 36c made on the average ticket of €6, which 85% of people go for.

Calios makes 24 grand from it a year profit. He obviously has a massive shop. But its not a massive figure compared to costs then. I'm sure a big shop has huge overheads.

Calibos

I think you misunderstood my point Pugwash. My point was to illustrate that the odds are so small of a win that even after people spending approximately 6,000,000 in our shop on lotto over the last 15 years we still 'ONLY' sold 2 winners. The shop draw part of my point was just kind of illustrative of how if you forget about the actual lotto for a minute and imagine people spent 6,000,000 on tickets to enter us in a 10,000 euro draw, that we only won it twice in the last 15 years. I wasn't saying, "go on, buy a ticket and give us the shop win of 10,000 on top of our commission" etc etc

As far as I'm concerned its worth 3 quid a draw for the dream but I wouldn't personally spend more unless it was a big jackpot like last week. Even then I only spent 6. I hate to see people spending even 20 quid a week on it. You just aren't shortening your odds enough by doing even 20 a week. I'm not sure if its my place to censure people for excessive lottery expenditure and I certainly never say anything to people buying lotto because that €60 they might spend might be on behalf of a syndicate rather than a misguided attempt to shorten their odds or win themselves out of financial problems, but I certainly on many occasions have tried to steer people out the door with a few quid left in their pocket who have been scratching and buying and scratching and buying scratch cards in the shop for the last 10 minutes. I'll say thing like, " Ah sure your luck isn't in today, give up while your ahead buddy" etc etc rather than what I actually think, ie "FFS, you have an addiction there mate, cop yourself on" etc

Also my figures in the last post aren't exact because for example there have only been 2 draws a week for half of the lotteries life for example, lotto plus only came in 5 years ago, the price of a line has gone up over the years etc etc. IIRC we get 5% commission (I'd have to check with the 'oul lad') So even if our lotto turnover was actually 6 million over 15 years, our cut was 300,000 ie 20,000 a year.

Calibos

Just saw aphex's post who made some of my points ahead of me!

Were actually a small corner shop. The shop floor is about 20'x25' or something, but we do have a decent sized catchment area which would be why our lotto revenues would be a good size. For all I know taking the change in draw frequencies and price of ticket changes etc that I mentioned above, our revenues could be 4.5 million or they could be 7.5. Must try and check that out with the oul lad if the figures are handy.

Whatever about whether our shop beat the odds by selling 2 winners out of 6 million quid, there is another shop in the town (since closed) who I have on good authority only sold about 3-400 quid a 'week' worth of tickets. They've sold 3 winners as far as I know. They defo beat the odds!! All maindraw, so the shop prize was IR£5000 and then €10,000 and their winning tickets were all single winners so they didn't have to split the shop prize with other shops either like we did. Based on his lotto revenues for all I know the oul fella who owned that shop probably made more money in the shop winners prizes over the years than he actually made in lotto sales commission!! :D....Bastid!! :D

BaZmO*

Calibos wrote:

I'm no expert on probability (did pass maths in the leaving!) but when you buy your 2 line minimum play I thought it was 2...1 in 5 million chances you got rather than reducing your odds to 1 in 2,622,893 ie if you bought €1000 worth (1,000 lines) by that rationale you would have reduced the odds to 2622 to 1. Could that be right??

You are right, I had my hung over head on was I said that!

It does only give you 2no. 1 in 5 million chances.

Me so silly!

Pugwash

Shops don't have anywhere remotely near the margin casinos have! Shops only make 6% on every ticket sold.

If that is the case with the shops, fine, profits are not a huge issue. However I do stand by the fact that the lotto (esp. scratchcards) is a homogenised form of casino gambling.

As you said yourself Aphex, the shops do not make a huge profit, I accept that, but the money has to go somewhere. In essence, my problem is with the lottery itself who imo are exploiting people and making money hand over fist. The 6 odd million mentioned has to go somewhere ie. the lotto. This sum is from just one agent too.

Essentially lads, my problem is with the lotto's operations, attitude and marketing. I didnt mean to tar shopkeepers with the same brush. I do find it obscene that that ammount of cash is relayed to the lottery, most of which is from the pockets of people who would not consider themselves gamblers though they spend quite a sizable ammount on tickets per year.

The fact that tickets are available in newsagents has people under the illusion that gambling and "playing the lotto" are two completely different things. That is what i find the most unsettling as people who may feel a bit guilty about having a €15 flutter on the horses wouldnt particularly mind losing that much playing the lotto.

The truth is that I had a friend who was extremely addicted to scratchcards and this was a fella who has never stepped foot inside a bookie's doors. That turned me off the lotto for life and made me see beyond the whole PR front/charity vacade.

Calibos

I agree to an extent with all your points Pugwash. Like I said in the last post, when I get someone in buying a rake of scratches, then buying more with his winnings if he even won anything I am saying FFS mate to myself and often end up trying to persuade them to keep their money in their pocket.

I think most people are reasonably sensible about it though and don't spend anymore than they can afford. Unfortunately as with everything there are some people with addictive personalities who take it to extremes eg. Booze. We can't ban the booze just because 'some' drink themselves into oblivion.

Blisterman

The Lotto is one of the only forms of gambling, where the cost is small, but the prize could change your life.

lisa.c

8 workmates won it which i suppose is better than one rich mother ****er winning it all.. fair play to them i guess ill keep dreaming.

Calibos

A surgeon in Blackrock clinic won it TWICE!! a few years ago about 2 years apart.