My husband disapproves of me playing the lottery. He says "Why don't you just take your ticket price and flush it down the toilet?"
But he doesn't understand. I only ever play when the expected value is greater than or equal to 1.
Well, mostly...(I assume away the possibility of having to share the jackpot with another winner). And since the odds remain crap - it means it's got to be a big old jackpot for me to play.
Even when it's a big jackpot - like this weekend's Euromillions £75 million pounds (that's probably around $140 million) - I savor my ticket. I don't check it straight away. I try to get good value out of my lottery fantasy*.
Well, I just checked my ticket. And guess what!!!!!!!!
Nothing. I did match one number, but that and the price of a cup of coffee will get you a cup of coffee.
But guess what else!!!!!!
Nobody else won either - which means that this weekend's estimated jackpot is £88 million. That's a lot of money. That's a life changing amount of money. That's awesome and I'm playing again.
(I have a complicated lottery fantasy which is such a great business idea that I don't think I can share it here.)
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3 comments:
Okay, Vol, you know my trademark rant that I go off on whenever anyone mentions lotteries. I will spare you that lecture seeing as how you only play when the expected value equals or exceeds 1. Good use of your econ training.
The Hater and I like to play the "how will we spend the multi-million lottery winnings" game...
Meanwhile, I've got a floral question for you on my blog.
wow - that's a whole lotta maths for a one pound ticket!
me - i play when it gets really really super high. which is like, once a year.
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