The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd: "Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up" Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.
Lottery as a service
Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
51–60 of 162 posts
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#52Question: With a jackpot of $800mil and the chances of winning 1 in ~300mil, could you not buy 300mil tickets? (Excepting, of course, the risk that someone else wins and the cost of taxes).
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#53Question: With a jackpot of $800mil and the chances of winning 1 in ~300mil, could you not buy 300mil tickets? (Excepting, of course, the risk that someone else wins and the cost of taxes).
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#54Free YC 2016 application: Build website to crowdsource $292,201,338. Buy all the lotto tickets. Pay back investors 150% of their investment. Make ~ $69.5M. (assuming lotto tickets are a $1) (someone else can figure out the break even point after taxes)
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#55Lottery is a progressive tax on stupidity.
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#56Question: With a jackpot of $800mil and the chances of winning 1 in ~300mil, could you not buy 300mil tickets? (Excepting, of course, the risk that someone else wins and the cost of taxes).
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/25/us/group-invests-5-million...
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#57Question: With a jackpot of $800mil and the chances of winning 1 in ~300mil, could you not buy 300mil tickets? (Excepting, of course, the risk that someone else wins and the cost of taxes).
Splitting the pot and paying taxes on the lump sum or taxes + time on the annuity means that you likely take a net loss buying all the possible numbers.
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#58The comment on the site where some people play when it's a high payout more for wanting to participate in the cultural event (i.e. go see Star Wars in theaters) than the expectation that they'll win makes a lot of sense. I think that's mainly why I get a few tickets sometimes when it gets super high, even though I know my chances of winning are significantly worse and my chances of winning at all are almost nothing.
Makes me wonder if getting more people to play higher jackpots ends up evening things out in the end.
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#59Free YC 2016 application: Build website to crowdsource $292,201,338. Buy all the lotto tickets. Pay back investors 150% of their investment. Make ~ $69.5M. (assuming lotto tickets are a $1) (someone else can figure out the break even point after taxes)
Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?
#60The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd: "Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up" Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.
Obligatory (previously posted here): http://www.aviato.com/quiz