£125,000,000

[Alberon]

With this lottery the odds don't really change that much even with the increase of ticket sales. The odds on hitting the jackpot are still about 72 million to one. So you've got about as much chance of being hit by lightning and a meteorite simultaneously.

But despite knowing all that I still pay my idiot tax each week.

[Hypnotoad.]

Your chances of winning the UK lottery are the same as Elvis landing a UFO next to the Loch Ness Monster

You are 6 times more likely to win the UK lottery than you are this Euro lotto or whatever it is

[slim]

But why? what stopped you buying one when the jackpot was 50 million or whatever the fuck it started at

My 1mil was a bad example

Because I hadn't heard about it, because there wasn't a thread on here about it.

I don't read the news, watch telly, or listen to the radio, excepting a few programmes I download or buy on DVD, so I wouldn't have known otherwise.

As for other people, as I said, £100000000 excites the senses, opens up realms of previously unexplored possibilties of expenditure. I think that's justification enough for them, isn't it?


Edit: Missed an s.

[chand]

Your chances of winning the UK lottery are the same as Elvis landing a UFO next to the Loch Ness Monster

Well, they're not are they? Cos someone wins the UK lottery almost every week. And Elvis is dead. And the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

[Frinky]

But UFO's do?

[Daaaaaaan]

Don't give me all those "you stand just as much chance...." odds, they're stupid as well. How do you work them out? I have to be outside and I have to stay outside while the thunderstorm is in progress but if I want to win the lottery, I just have to buy a ticket.

[Hypnotoad.]

Don't give me all those "you stand just as much chance...." odds, they're stupid as well. How do you work them out? I have to be outside and I have to stay outside while the thunderstorm is in progress but if I want to win the lottery, I just have to buy a ticket.

......and live for 10 million years

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I know nothing about probablity, but just living longer doesn't make you any more likely to win it as the odds are the same every time you enter, right?

[Hypnotoad.]

I know nothing about probablity, but just living longer doesn't make you any more likely to win it as the odds are the same every time you enter, right?

Well it cant hurt

[fanny splendid]

Your chances of winning the UK lottery are the same as Elvis landing a UFO next to the Loch Ness Monster

Well, they're not are they? Cos someone wins the UK lottery almost every week. And Elvis is dead. And the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

Gambling isn't the same as mathematics.

[John Self]

Your chances of winning the UK lottery are the same as Elvis landing a UFO next to the Loch Ness Monster

Well, they're not are they? Cos someone wins the UK lottery almost every week. And Elvis is dead. And the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

But UFO's do?

Well here's the thing: we just. Don't. Know. Not yet, not entirely, not all of us.  Do YOU?

But if they do, they could never land next to the Loch Ness Monster. The monster's in the middle of a great big bloody lake. Water. You can't land on water- that's confusing two totally different elements.

No, I'd say if you want to come up with a wacky/depressing chance-comparison, how about this? Your chances of winning the UK Lottery are the same as finding that amount of money in a holdall in the street. You know, like those kids in Eastenders did. And you don't even need to buy a ticket my way, so if you think about it, you're saving money. Mmm? Hey?

*unaware that probably no other poster here is 'thinking about it', not in any significant way*

[Dark Sky]

But UFO's do?

Unidentified Flying Objects do exist, yes.  UFO doesn't necessarily mean an alien spacecraft.  Anyway you can't prove aliens don't exist, so bleurgh.

[gazzyk1ns]

But UFO's do?

Unidentified Flying Objects do exist, yes.

Hooray! I was going to post that a few minutes after I saw Frinky's post, but I thought "Frinky might think I was having a go at him if I post that; someone else is bound to do it, anyway.". gazzyk1ns wins!

[chand]

Your chances of winning the UK lottery are the same as Elvis landing a UFO next to the Loch Ness Monster

Well, they're not are they? Cos someone wins the UK lottery almost every week. And Elvis is dead. And the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

Gambling isn't the same as mathematics.

The probability of winning the lottery is entirely different to the made-up odds concerning the resurrection of Elvis.

[Bogey]

I wonder how many people choose the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 and 42.

[surreal]

I wonder how many people choose the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 and 42.

<makes a note to use those numbers next time>

[imitationleather]

How often do the people here who play the lottery win any sort of prize at all? I've personally never played it (not through some sort of "Wuur, idiot tax!" smugness, but because I always forget to do it) so obviously I haven't won a dime. People win £10 quite a lot, don't they? Or have they stopped giving out that prize now? I can't remember.

Has anyone won more than £10?

[Frinky]

We won £3800 on Christmas Eve about 5 years ago.

[Almost Yearly]

I wonder how many people choose the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 and 42.

I bet there's a little popularity peak at both 23 and 42, lowering your prize money slightly.

[imitationleather]

Why, is it because women inbetween those two ages are fair game for most men?

I've not woken up properly yet.

[Almost Yearly]

Attractive numbers aren't they, linked with mysticism and meaning. I'd love to see data as to if that's true. Is 13 chosen less or more than average, etc.

[surreal]

Stats for the UK Lottery are here

[Hypnotoad.]

Why, is it because women inbetween those two ages are fair game for most men?

I've not woken up properly yet.

http://thelostnumbers.blogspot.com/

They came up in the Irish lottery recently

[gazzyk1ns]

Ah, the lost numbers - my mate does those. A few weeks ago 4 of them came up on the UK lottery (or possibly some shit like the Thunderball, I can't remember, probably the main lottery though) and he only won about  £40, because 50,000 other people got 4 numbers that week too.

[Alberon]

Yeah, if those numbers ever come up as the jackpot it'll be split many many ways that week.

[Bogey]

Robert Anton Wilson and Douglas Adams, respectively.

I know the number 23 was magical before old Bob came along, but did 42 have any significance pre-hitchhiker's?

And yeah, any common sequence is a bad idea, because you'd inevitably have to share your prize. If you're going to play the lottery, lucky dip seems the most sensible way: using the same set week after week is the road to suicide.

[Utter Shit]

You know people say "oh, well you have more chance of being struck by lightning seven times than you do of winning the national lottery" - seeing as usually at least one person wins the lottery each week, does this mean that more than one person each week is struck by lightning for the seventh time in their lives? Otherwise it's just a false statistic.

[Alberon]

My parents and me have a ticket between us and I think we've played it every week since it started. We win a tenner every few months and once got about £70 or so for four numbers, but that's it.

Lucky Dip is the way to go because if you always play the same numbers then you daren't miss a week because you know they'd come up then (though they most likely wouldn't of course).

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

sorry, ignore.

[danielreal2k]

What if it keeps rolling over and over until it reaches the GDP of a small country?  you could buy your own island and fighter jets