Most likely this was a pick 4 drawing, where, if your numbers come up, you win a predefined amount of money(Z). 30 tickets means she won 30xZ not, (Z/30)x30).
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Good point- according to Virginia Lotteries Pick 4 page the odds of winning is 1 in 10,000. Significantly better than a powerball type lottery which is what I was thinking about. Still- pretty amazing hedging the bet like that. You’d have better odds putting 30 same bets on 1 number on Roulette- and that would still be crazy.
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The odds are generally not in our favor; this woman had one of the those rare, once-in-a-lifetime moments when the odds did tilt in her favor.
Good for her.
“That’s the way it goes… but every now and then, it goes the other way too.”
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I would note that the odds did not change in her favor. She won by random chance just as most people lost. She “beat” the odds, but they remain the same.
Sadly, many people who win like this do not see it as the rare outlier that it is but rather see it as evidence that they can win at gambling and will continue to gamble and loose overall, consistent with the laws of probably over time.
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I couldn’t get past why she chose those numbers. After years of working in IT, I’ve seen the same series of numbers in a single day too many times to count. If every coincidence led me to buy a lottery ticket, I would be broke today.
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I saw this same story earlier today.
So now I’VE seen those numbers twice. . . hmmmmmm. . . should I ???
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Same as it ever was.
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…saw the same group of four numbers, 1-0-3-1, “a couple of times during the day” and decided it was a sign.
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Unlike most casino games, there are times when the expected value of lottery games exceeds 1. It’s certainly not most of the time, and the big jackpot ones have been nerfed to make it exceedingly rare, but there are times when the math says, “yes, you should play the lottery.”
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At least around here, the money from the lottery goes towards state parks and open space. I can think of worse things than giving regular donations to that cause, with the added bonus of having a very, very, very, very small chance of also winning some money. Not that I actually do buy tickets, I’m too poor right now, but I’ve considered it if circumstances change.
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Famously, there was a statustician who became a professional lottery player for a while. They got banned after a few wins.
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In many of those cases the number of entrants means the prize will be split, and the value of lottery prizes is pretty much always exaggerated and paid as annuity of a much lower cash value - I don’t get to pay my $1,000 rent by paying it over 20 years. So sometimes when the math says yes, it still actually says no when you punch in the full set of numbers. Lotteries typically have much, much worse payout ratios than all casino games.
So, to support the kinds of things that tax money normally would.
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As I said, the big jackpot games are rarely over expected value = 1, and are usually much, much lower.
There are methods of greatly reducing the odds of split (hint: look up the case of the mathematician serial lottery winner @tekk references above). Only count the money that’s immediately available (for instance, the games with annuity payout usually pay out about half if you want it all right away; that’s the figure you use for your calculation). Etc. Run the numbers based on facts (including being taxed at the highest income rate), not on how the lottery agency promotes the game. They are required by law to provide honest odds and prizes.
THIS! Lottery funds get used as a huge public bait-and-switch. The funding from lottery ends up removed from the general budget for that topic (education! parks!) then diluted when the next idea comes up that someone wants to fund with lottery money.
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Well, guess I won’t be buying those tickets, then. Silly of me to think that anything would actually contribute anything beyond the absolute bare minimum to environmental causes, for any reason, EVER. The only thing more reviled is education.
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To phrase it another way, it’s a tax on people who haven’t been given much hope otherwise. If nothing I do seems to make a difference (at least monetarily) then what difference does it make if I play the lottery?It’s not like that few bucks a week is going to radically alter my circumstances otherwise.
I realize not all lottery players are poor, and that I am stereotyping a bit. Maybe some people haven’t had the opportunity to gain those basic math skills? Maybe some have them but just don’t care?
An aunt of mine gives me a lotto ticket every Christmas. Even though we both know I’m going to lose, it’s still fun to go to her place, check the numbers and hang out for a bit. It’s better than the silly bauble or joke gift I’d get otherwise.
All that to say that being bad at math might be a reason that some people play, but it isn’t everyone’s reason and even if they are bad at math, it might not be their fault.
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That is exactly why I just went through the comments. This article literally makes no sence. She indeed split it 30 times with herself
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This used to happen fairly frequently with Canadian lotteries, (maybe still does) but there was always the prospect of multiple winners so the opportunity cost wasn’t really what it seemed. E.G. there was a “649” lottery that cost a buck but jackpots could exceed 14 million regularly ( 14 million different combinations of six of 1-49 ), but if someone else won as well you’d split the pot. In Canada, however no tax on lottery winnings (because they’re already a tax ) . We had an office pool where I worked and that’s how we conducted it…only bet when the opportunity cost approached 1. My contribution was writing a program to mark up the selection blanks on a laserjet 
(since we rolled over small wins there could be over 100 combinations to select )
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In my home state the money goes to education, except that in response to the “extra” money that lotto provides, the state has reduced funding from taxes, so that education is doing no better or perhaps even worse than before.
ETA:Which I see has been pretty much already stated.
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