How Steem can help you win $1,000s on the Lottery!

in #steemit8 years ago (edited)

Two simple techniques that will work regardless of your favourite lottery and whichever country you happen to live in. 

I’ll explain how you can make it work for you at the end of the post, but first I want to talk about your chances of winning big time…

Your Chances

Not many people realise quite how unlikely it is that you’ll win the jackpot on the lottery, so I’m going to present a list of a few things that are more likely. For info, I’m basing these comparisons on a well known US lottery, but similar (although slightly better) odds apply to major UK and European lotteries. 

Things that are more than 30 million times more likely than winning the jackpot

Statistically speaking, these are things that are reasonably likely.


1 : 2 Flipping heads on a single coin toss
1 : 4 Flipping heads twice in a row
1 : 6 Predicting the result of a single die roll
1 : 6 Rolling any double on a pair of dice
1 : 8 Flipping heads three times in a row
1 : 10 Being left handed

Things that are more than 3 million times more likely than winning the jackpot

These things aren’t that likely, but nevertheless they would probably happen around 3 million times before you win the jackpot..


1 : 33 Giving birth to twins (assuming you’re a pregnant woman!)
1 : 35 Predicting any single number on a roulette spin
1 : 36 Predicting and rolling a specific double on a pair of dice
1 : 36 Rolling a triple on three dice
1 : 64 Flipping heads six times in a row
1 : 84 The chance that you will die in a motor vehicle accident (obviously this one would only happen once!)

Things that are more than 300 thousand times more likely than winning the jackpot

Moving into things that are really pretty unlikely now.

1 : 250 Giving birth to identical twins (Again, men need not apply!)
1 : 500 Being born with 11 fingers or toes
1 : 512 Flipping heads nine times in a row
1 : 693 Drawing a full house in any single five card hand
1 : 837 Giving birth to triplets (Men, you know the score)

Things that are more than 30 thousand times more likely than winning the jackpot

These really are rare occurrences..
1 : 2,000 Fathering a child after a vasectomy
1 : 6,000 Tossing a coin that lands on its edge
1 : 8,192 Flipping heads 13 times in a row
1 : 9,400 Being shot and killed in the US
1 : 10,000 Picking a four leafed clover on your first try

Things that are more than 3 thousand times more likely than winning the jackpot

These ones are slightly grim, but don’t worry too much, the chances of them happening to you (or to anyone you know) are incredibly slim


1 : 12,000 Being struck by lightning at some stage in your life
1 : 18,000 Being murdered
1 : 65,536 Flipping heads 16 times in a row
1 : 75,000 Being killed in an asteroid impact that causes global devastation
1 : 80,000 Being killed in a volcanic eruption

Things that are more than 3 hundred times more likely than winning the jackpot

I really wouldn’t worry about these. You are extremely unlikely to know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone (etc) that these have happened to

1 : 300,000 Being killed by lightning
1 : 434,782 Being shot and killed in the UK
1 : 500,000 Giving birth to quadruplets
1 : 524,288 Flipping heads 19 times in a row
1 : 649,740 Drawing a royal flush in a single five card hand
1 : 662,000 Winning an Olympic gold medal
1 : 704,000 Being killed by a falling coconut
1 : 960,000 Being struck by lightning this year
1 : 1,000,000 Giving birth to identical triplets
1 : 1,000,000 Picking a five leafed clover on your first try

Things that are more than 30 times more likely than winning the jackpot

Just forget about it...


1 : 1,505,000 Being a movie star
1 : 1,600,000 Being killed by an isolated falling meteorite
1 : 8,388,608 Flipping heads 23 times in a row

Things that are more than 3 times more likely than winning the jackpot

Simply no way!

1 : 11,000,000 Being killed in a plane crash
1 : 13,200,000 Being an astronaut
1 : 55,000,000 Giving birth to quintuplets
1 : 67,108,864 Flipping heads 26 times in a row

Things that are more likely than winning the jackpot

Pffffthh…

1 : 144,000,000 Being struck by lightning twice in two separate incidents at some stage in your life
1 : 268,435,456 Flipping heads 27 times in a row


Ok – I confess that some of these odds may be a little inaccurate (they’ve been compiled from numerous different sources found on the net), and even the accurate ones could be misleading - for example the death stats are based on how many deaths are attributed to any given cause out of the sum of all deaths, and they aren’t any given person’s odds of dying in that way. For example, if you spend your entire life lying under a palm tree you’re far more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than an Inuit who never leaves the Arctic circle.

Anyway. drum roll… 

The odds of winning the jackpot in a major US Lottery 1 : 292,201,338

For comparison the odds of winning in a  major European lottery are 1 : 116,531,800, and in major UK lottery are 1 : 45,057,474. But the jackpot is likely to be significantly higher in the US one than the European one, which is also likely to be significantly higher than the UK one. 

With the US lottery, if you bought one lottery ticket a week, you would have an even chance of taking the jackpot once every 5.6 million years. I hope all of this gives you an idea of how ridiculously unlikely it is. As they say, it could be you - but let’s face it - it won’t be. That’s why many people call the lottery a tax on the hopelessly optimistic!

Yeah yeah, I get the picture… But you said I could win $1,000s on the lottery! Spill the beans dammit!

There are in fact two methods:

The first way to have a much better chance of winning the jackpot is to buy more tickets. Let’s say you play the lottery every week of your life, and that you live to the age of 80. On this basis, you would have an even chance of winning at some stage in your life if you bought 70,240 tickets every week. At the time of writing, the tickets are $2 each, so you would need to invest roughly $140k every week. That’s the best way to massively increase your chances of getting that jackpot, but I’d guess it’s not the advice you were hoping for!

The fact is, nothing can help you beat the odds of winning with any single lottery ticket.

However, there is in fact a very reliable method of profiting from the lottery, which is the one I wanted to tell you all about. 

Here it is:

Step 1: Just stop doing it! That’s right, keep your money! If you currently spend $10 a week, taking this approach you will win $520 a year, or $5,200 every decade. Definitely not to be sniffed at!


Step 2: Invest it in Steem, and power it up into Steem Power. That way you will benefit from compound interest, in the words of Albert Einstein, “the most powerful force in the universe”.
Assuming the Steem interest rate stabilizes at 12% as many have suggested, your $520 annual lottery winnings will be worth somewhere around $10,000 after 10 years, and as much as $40k after 20, $150k after 30 and around $520k after 40 years. Of course, many are predicting much higher rates of interest, and I've also ignored the likelihood of a potential rise in the value of Steem over the years, but I wanted to keep the predictions on the pessimistic side. There are many posts on Steem on possible interest rates and the likelihood of increases in the value of the currency, so as they say, do your own research. Above all, do the sensible thing and invest! 


Hope this advice sets you all on your way to building your own fortunes! If you've enjoyed this post please up vote, comment, and share with your friends, and if it's successful maybe I'll do some more. 

Good luck to all!

Sort:  

Haha, my buddy once told me that the lottery is a tax on the mathematically challenged, and I think your article supports that. Upvoted. Here's my latest masterpiece
https://steemit.com/life/@tee-em/adventures-in-peaceful-anarchoparenting-volume-2

Hi, well it's certainly not the best use of anyone's money! Cheers for the support. Had a look at your post, but not directly useful to me as I don't have kids. Now if you've got any advice on the effective anarchomanagement of an unruly cat that'd really be something!

Hahaha, great post, I'm glad you got the isolated meteorite stat in there :-)

Cg

Glad you like it, and very much appreciate your support!
Kind of frightening that scientists think we are more likely to die in a global meteor strike than a single rock crashing through our roof, don't you think? But obviously a degree of circular logic there! Lies, damned lies, and statistics! :)

Yep. Tax on the mathematically challenged or the stupid!

But, hey, someone has to win! Chances of winning if you don't enter? Zero!

Thanks for your support!
I know what you're saying... Chance if you don't enter 0%. Chance if you do enter 0.000000342%...
I'll take my chances and skip it! Just hope my good lady shares her winnings with me when her ticket comes in! ;-)

@matrioshka This is a great post! But I'm reminded of the old saw "A lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math."
You're not exactly wrong, but the lottery is a stochastic process and winning or not winning does not change your odds in the next go round.
However buying up a substantial number of tickets using a statistical distribution model, might :D

Thanks very much, glad you liked it. Greatly appreciate your vote, and cheers for the feedback.

Agree with what you're saying. Its not like drawing cards out of deck so that your chance of drawing the Jack of Hearts out of the remaining cards increases every time, and you know that if you draw 52 cards you will eventually get it. So yes, the chances of the first ticket you buy giving you a jackpot are exactly the same as your chances of the 292,201,338th ticket doing it, and there is absolutely no guarantee that you will ever get a jackpot if you buy 292,201,338 tickets, or in fact however many you buy, be it 1 billion, 10 billion, 100 billion or more. As you say, in the case of the lottery the odds can only give you an indication of your chance every time you play.
And for that reason, I'm out! :-D

Man this post didn't get near the attention it deserved. It is crazy good and the statistics are crazy on that. I don't play the lottery and I'm powered up into Steem Power. I love how you said in-vest and stead of invest! the n00bs won't get it but I understood the pun

Glad you liked it! Sadly there only seems to be about a 1:100,000 chance that any given Steemer will read it. A bit too early to give up the day job perhaps!

Good luck to all!

Ahahaha yeah after all these, I'm sure people will feel very lucky...

Glad you liked it! Just be careful under those palm trees... It's a dangerous world out there ;-)

Thank you
I will give a miss on this one.

Adding to your blog.
1:5 Commentators will get Down flagged in Steemit for leaving a link in other author post. Please be aware of that.

LOVE IT!

Thanks so much :)

you can win $7 million in the coming TOTO draw in Singapore

Nice, Singapore is a lovely place. At 1 : 13,983,816 against, that jackpot is actually roughly 3 times more likely than the UK lottery too, and around 21 times more likely than the US one!
But sadly still around 10 times less likely than being killed by an isolated meteor strike.
Good luck!

Well. Ìnvest in a dream but invest with only what you can afford to lose totally. :-).

Yep, hang on to your dreams! :-)

A great article! Well written and researched with good illustrations - is that your hand in the photograph?! That's convinced me - I'm not buying a lottery ticket ever again - I'll just stick to Bingo! What are the odds of this article making a dollar?! Come on guys - this is sound advice - let's vote for this dude!!!

Haha! It's not my hand, but if it was I'd be happy to give you the finger!
Joking of course! 😀
Glad you like the post, and very much appreciate your support. Given it's reached the ripe old age of 2 days, I'd guess a dollar is extreme wishful thinking now. I'm considering doing the lottery as a more reliable means of generating income...

Simply Great Information and Presentation

Thank you! Appreciate an upvote if you enjoyed it! Loads of other ideas in here that I'll share if I think people are listening... Cheers for your support!

@alaynaspop appears to be a bot that posts this same comment on multiple posts without also upvoting to support the compliment and adding nothing to the conversation. On my page, it even posted the same comment twice, so it seems to have a bug.

https://steemit.com/census/@brendio/australian-census-online-fail

I had my suspicions... Man, it's like Bladerunner around here!