What Are The Odds
Recently, after collecting a small Lotto prize of just over $20, I began to consider the chances of winning the first prize.
So, I found the odds of winning a first prize in the various Australian Lotto "games". It is hardly a "game", but that is how it is promoted.
Here are the games, and their respective odds:
Now, lets add some perspective to those odds.
Most people are familiar with a drawing pen, such as this one, which will draw a line about 1mm wide.
A line 1mm wide is a little wider than that a normal ball point pen might draw.
Now, imagine a strip of paper long enough to represent all the possible number combinations in each of the above lotto games, each represented by a line across that paper strip. Then you come along and draw a line across that strip of paper to represent your chosen numbers for one game such that you win first prize.
For the Powerball Lotto until April 2018, that strip of paper would need to be about 76.7 Kilometers ( 47.6 Miles) long.
After that date it would need to be 134.4Km ( 83.5 miles).
For the Oz Lotto, it would need to be 45.3 Kilometers (28.1 miles) long, and for the 6 from 45 game, it would be about 8.1 Kilometers (5 miles).
You now know why you have not won yet.
In my whole life I have only met one person that won a first division prize in a lotto in Australia. This happened about 40 years ago whilst I was working in a bank, and a customer came in with his winnings.
Lotto = Voluntary Taxation.