A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com
A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#2A more elaborate explanation can be found here:
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#3Now that it's known, it will be arbitraged away. The guy who discovered this should have kept it a secret ;).
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#4Actually. Most lotteries become good bets when the jackpots get large enough. Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course.
Avoid 12345, geometric progressions, etc.
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#5Actually. Most lotteries become good bets when the jackpots get large enough. Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course. Avoid 12345, geometric progressions, etc.
Why would you avoid 12345 and geometric progressions?
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#6Actually. Most lotteries become good bets when the jackpots get large enough. Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course. Avoid 12345, geometric progressions, etc.
Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course.
That's an assumption you can't make in a parimutuel lottery, which is the usual lottery design. Mathematician Ian Stewart, author of many good books on mathematics, gives one example of a lottery in Britain that had more than seventy winners.
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#7Actually. Most lotteries become good bets when the jackpots get large enough. Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course. Avoid 12345, geometric progressions, etc.
Why would you avoid 12345 and geometric progressions?
I assume it's because more people will have those numbers than other numbers so the pot will be split.
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#8This has happened before. In November 1997, the New York State Lottery ran a promotion where all the prizes were doubled every Wednesday. Players had nearly a 20% edge over the house.
http://catlin.casinocitytimes.com/articles/1226.html
MAA: Math Horizons ran an article on it February 2007.
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you avoid 12345 and geometric progressions?
I assume it's because more people will have those numbers than other numbers so the pot will be split.
Unless everone thinks like the parent and those numbers become underrepresented.. and you can take it into the Nth level like a Keynesian Beauty Contest.
Re: A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math
#10Actually. Most lotteries become good bets when the jackpots get large enough. Assuming you don't split a pot with someone else, of course. Avoid 12345, geometric progressions, etc.
And concentrate on numbers over 31 -- many "lucky numbers" are birthdates.