JUST HOW BAD ARE THE ODDS?
Last Updated: April 20, 2002

Home	Okay, this is how I got started. I've always figured that one didn't get much of a return playing the lottery and so wanted to get some hard numbers on exactly what one can expect over the long haul. So I wrote a little program to simulate the Wisconsin multistate Powerball lottery drawing which is drawn twice a week, making 104 drawings per year. I originally intended on writing a web-based application (and still do), so that anyone could simulate multiple years in a few seconds, but I still haven't gotten around to doing that yet. I kinda skipped posting the 13 and 14 million year marks, so here's 15. Interesting how I'm below average on the top 3 categories. Wonder if that reflects on the randomizer I'm using... Below is a table giving all of the nitty gritty numbers, but the long and the short is that, on average, you can only expect a little more than 33 cents back out of every dollar you spend. We'll see what the next million years bring.
	Summary - 15 Million Years Amount spent: $1,560,000,000     Predicted winnings: $519,006,948 33.270% My winnings: $492,286,960 31.557%
	15 Million Years - All The Details Match Odds You Win Predicted Actual Predict Won Actual Won 80,089,128 Jackpot 19.48 17 194,800,000 170,000,000 1,953,394 100,000 798.61 777 79,861,000 77,700,000 364,042 5,000 4,285.22 4,254 21,426,100 21,270,000 8,880 100 175,675.68 175,845 17,567,568 17,584,500 8,467 100 184,244.71 184,423 18,424,471 18,442,300 207 7 7,536,231.88 7,559,976 52,753,623 52,919,832 605 7 2,578,512.40 2,578,392 18,049,587 18,048,744 118 4 13,220,338.98 13,216,573 52,881,356 52,866,292 74 3 21,081,081.08 21,151,764 63,243,243 63,455,292