Time for Lotto?
You all know that I started to spend a little time keeping track of lottery. Living in the State of Washington, I'm primarily focusing on two multi-million games, Mega Millions and Lotto. I only bought $5 ticket several weeks ago to test water, and of course I was not lucky enough.
It now becomes obvious to me that Lotto is presenting big opportunities.
Why? Lotto has not generated a single jackpot prize winner for 16 drawings, and it is expected that the jackpot prize from the next drawing will top $7.1 million, the highest of 2004.
According to WALottery, the odds of winning is:
| Per $1 Play | ||
| If Players Match | Prize Amount | Odds (per $1 play) |
| 6 of 6 | JACKPOT! | 1: 6,991,908 |
| 5 of 6 | $1,000 | 1: 27,100 |
| 4 of 6 | $30 | 1:516 |
| 3 of 6 | $3 | 1:28 |
| Overall Odds | 1:27 |
One thing that needs to factored in math is the jackpot is paid out in annuity, unless the winner chooses to receive half of the nominal value of the jackpot in one shot. So the real payout of the lottery for the next drawing is around 71%:
| Per $1 Play | ||||
| If Players Match | Prize Amount | Odds (per $1 play) | Real Prize Value | Payout Per $1 |
| 6 of 6 | JACKPOT! | 1: 6,991,908 | $ 3,550,000 | $ 0.51 |
| 5 of 6 | $1,000 | 1: 27,100 | $ 1,000 | $ 0.04 |
| 4 of 6 | $30 | 1:516 | $ 30 | $ 0.06 |
| 3 of 6 | $3 | 1:28 | $ 3 | $ 0.11 |
| Overall Odds | 1:27 | $ 0.71 |
Well, you can say at 71% it's still a negative sum game, but for the purpose of lottery-ticket retirement plan, it is almost a steal. Again, I will only bet socially so it will not affect my bottomline, but if I am lucky enough, I can save multiple years of hard working.
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