Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#51

Post by skylanh » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:01 AM UTC

Two large lotteries in my area: Lotto Max: 1:33,294,800 Lotto 649 1:14,000,000

(excluding the smaller pool draws of 5/6, 4/6, etc)

One ticket as the width of a human hair (60-80 µm).

The winning numbers are a hole the width of a human hair.

The odds of winning 1:14m is hitting another hair head on in a line 14,000,000×0.00007 m=980 meters wide. (~840 meters to ~1,120 meters)

The odds of winning 1:33.3m is hitting another hair head on in a line 33,294,800×0.00007 m=2,330.636 meters wide. (1,998 meters to ~2,664 meters)

(calculations by ChatGPT)

If I buy a ticket, it's so I can daydream for myself.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#52

Post by my_throwaway23 » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:07 AM UTC

This reminds me of a (dirt cheap - about 0.5€) scratch ticket available when I was growing up. The number of winning tickets, as specified on the ticket, was 51%. The 2% up from the usual 49% meant you won more than you lost. The smallest prize was about twice the cost of the ticket. We would run to the store on our lunch break, buy a couple of tickets, rinse and repeat a few times, and have money for whatever food we wanted for the day.

(and no, you wouldn't be able to farm them - the store only carried X amount of tickets, and they usually sold out quickly)

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#53

Post by tracerbulletx » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:07 AM UTC

episteme wrote: post #47

So what happens if this wins after a very low number of plays? What if it won twice in a row? Would the plays be reset because it isn't representative anymore? Or should it be left up to give a different message?

It won’t.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#54

Post by tracerbulletx » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:09 AM UTC

DavidPiper wrote: post #9

The amount of time I spent watching this page is a nice reminder of why I have a rule to never buy lottery tickets. See also: Simulation Clicker. I know how my brain works these days.

If you care that much about statistics you should buy them in the case where the expected value becomes positive every once and a while

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#55

Post by 0xis » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:10 AM UTC

There was a Neal Fun game: https://neal-fun.fandom.com/wiki/Win_The_Powerball

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#56

Post by mikepurvis » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:11 AM UTC

my_throwaway23 wrote: post #52

This reminds me of a (dirt cheap - about 0.5€) scratch ticket available when I was growing up. The number of winning tickets, as specified on the ticket, was 51%. The 2% up from the usual 49% meant you won more than you lost. The smallest prize was about twice the cost of the ticket. We would run to the store on our lunch break, buy a couple of tickets, rinse and repeat a few times, and have money for whatever food w…

I don’t understand how this lotto would make any money.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#57

Post by rottencupcakes » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:15 AM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #56

my_throwaway23 wrote: post #52

This reminds me of a (dirt cheap - about 0.5€) scratch ticket available when I was growing up. The number of winning tickets, as specified on the ticket, was 51%. The 2% up from the usual 49% meant you won more than you lost. The smallest prize was about twice the cost of the ticket. We would run to the store on our lunch break, buy a couple of tickets, rinse and repeat a few times, and have money for whatever food w…

I don’t understand how this lotto would make any money.

A limited availability loss leader product meant to normalize lottery tickets to young customers.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#58

Post by _mitterpach » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:18 AM UTC

tiffanyh wrote: post #32

What people often overlook about lottos is that for a few dollars, you’re buying the chance to dream about a better life. And that dream lasts right up until you check the numbers. That’s the part rational investors tend to miss … the power of dreaming. And I’ll admit it - I play the lottery too, even though I already live a pretty comfortable life.

Couldn’t the dreaming be done even without betting? This feels like an excuse to me to be completely honest.

I’ve personally had thoughts about what I would do if I were millionaire, and given the amount of stories of people coming into a large sums of money and their life getting significantly worse, I’d prefer to actually not win it.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#59

Post by pflenker » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:21 AM UTC

A teacher of mine used to say:

Lottery is a tax for people who don’t understand statistics.

Re: Show HN: Website that plays the lottery every second

#60

Post by hansvm » Sat, Jan 03, 2026, 6:23 AM UTC

TehCorwiz wrote: post #19

Waterluvian wrote: post #7

What I love about this is how it demonstrates that the waiting is the most powerful part. That week is where a lotto user’s brain does all the work for the lotto corp. The anticipation! The excitement. What if? Oh let’s daydream! Oh the dopamine! You don’t even have to sell them hope. Just sell them the sensation of hope.

I view buying a lottery ticket as a way to fund the things that the taxes are allocated to while also getting to fantasize until the drawing. I play maybe twice a year. There's near zero chance I'll win. That's not the point. The point is to have that fantasy, just for a moment.

> taxes are allocated to

That gets messy in a hurry. Most of the time time a lottery is introduced to help fund school districts, funding from other sources for those districts dries up. Money is fungible, and the effect is as if the lottery money directly went somewhere other than its earmarked purpose.