Assuming you win, what are your plans? How would your life alter? What would you do?
We always ask ourselves these questions when we imagine ourselves as lottery winners.
Given the jackpot size and the time between purchasing a ticket and the drawing, it’s hard not to fantasize about how you’d spend the money.
But, the odds of actually winning the lottery are laughably low. The likelihood of winning the lottery is so low that many people disregard it as a waste of time.
It’s more likely that you’ll get hit by lightning than to win the jackpot.
Is that like waiting out a thunderstorm on a golf course without buying a ticket? Buying more tickets may boost your odds of winning, but is this the smartest move?
The Math Behind Buying Multiple Lotto Tickets
In principle, the more tickets you purchase, the greater your odds of winning.
There is a certain quantity of tickets in smaller lottery settings, such as a random ticket drawing at your local school or community center, and purchasing more tickets increases your odds.
If there are 100 raffle tickets available, and you buy five, your odds of winning go to 5% from 1%.
But, the mathematics involved in lotteries is more intricate. That’s because players wager on a series of numbers rather than purchasing specific ones.
You might have picked the same sequence of numbers as everyone else. The pot will be divided among the winners if those numbers are drawn.
In addition, the likelihood of really winning the jackpot could be much higher.
To win the jackpot in the Powerball lottery, for instance, you must pick five winning numbers and the Powerball. The probability is one in 292,201,338.
The chances of winning with two tickets purchased are 2 in 292,201,338.
According to statisticians, these probabilities are so small that it’s difficult for the average person to conceptualize them.
A member on Quora shared a unique way to visualize probability:
The odds of correctly guessing the exact date and time of a dog’s single bark in the next nine years (say, the 12th second of 4:07am on July 15, 2028) are higher than those of winning the Powerball.
This seems improbable.
Many people who play the lottery buy two tickets in an effort to increase their chances of winning.
Increasing your chances is okay, but it won’t make a huge impact.
If you had the ability to choose two seconds out of the next nine years instead of one, how confident would you be in your ability to predict when that dog would bark?
If you bought 20,000 tickets, you still have a better chance of winning an Oscar than you do of winning the Powerball jackpot.
What About Lottery Pools?
How can you increase your odds of winning the lotto if purchasing additional tickets wastes your time, money, and energy?
Joining a lottery pool is a good option. Each week, they pool their resources to purchase dozens of lottery tickets.
In other words, you may boost your lottery-winning odds without having to shell out hundreds of dollars on tickets every week.
But there’s a catch. If your lottery pool somehow ends up winning, you’ll all have to divide the money equally.
Even if one of your 200 lottery tickets wins $10 million, you will only receive $50,000 because of the pooling effect. That’s before taking into account any applicable taxes.
In addition, many people need help dealing with the unexpected influx of wealth and notoriety that comes with winning the lotto as part of a group.
This is why lottery pools have resulted in numerous high-profile scandals throughout the years. Arguments over who should keep what have broken apart work teams, friendships, and even families.
Regrettably, a lot of these fights have to be settled in court.
Play The Lottery Just For Fun
The odds of winning real money lottery games are extremely low and will remain so regardless of how many times you play.
But if you’re determined to win, a lottery pool is an option to consider.
At the very least, you’ll have company in daydreaming about the money you might make.