The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #VII.. Stop In!!!

[ezdays]

...EZ. I claim that the probability of winning the lottery is, to 6 decimal places, the same whether you buy a ticket or not. Then, a few years ago 3 gauges won lotteries they hadn't entered.

Billions to one odds sounds like the number of mailings to the number of wins ... If everyone in the US gets an entry, that makes 7 or so contests before someone wins???

I would really be suspicious of "winning" a lottery that I didn't enter. Usually, they ask for upfront money to pay "taxes" or other fees. I would tell them to take it out of the money before they mail me a check.

As far as the odds go, these are the stated odds, I guess they are required to calculate that based on some criteria. That could be the number of expected returns, or as you say, the number of mailing that they send out. I doubt that they would ever say how they arrived at that number, but being in the ten digits, that along should put the USPO in black ink....