Yes Virginia there is justice.

[woodmort]

Well, if you believe the people around here, it's all rigged anyway so the downstaters will win, primarily the Mafia.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:

Yeah, but notice winners never make that claim?

 

[dewey]

I never know whether to leave some place 5 seconds earlier or later.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
All I know is that I've never been there right on time!

(Then again, BUYING tickets would probably help my chances...

)

 

[twentynine]

Quote:
Okay! I can see how you guys arrive at that conclusion.

Picture it this way:

Old fashion squirrel cage basket that rotates and mixes numbered ping pong balls. Ten balls in the basket, numbered 1 through 10. Now you have 100 people in line, each person pulls a ball looks at his number and returns the ball to the cage. What are the odds of the first person pulling the number 1 ball? What are the odds of the 100th person pulling the number 1 ball? What are the odds of the 100th person pulling the number 1 ball if he changes places with number 50?

1 in 10, 1 in 10, 1 in 10 into infinity-----

Now picture a random number generator as the squirrel cage. The odds of picking any number or series of numbers, never change.

With the power ball the pool of numbers expand, the number of numerals each individual picks is larger and the number of people playing are greater. The odds change from 1 in 10 to something like 1 in 200 brazilian. The math is still continued out to infinity.

No the machine/ computer doesn't know what/when any given series of numbers will be picked. They could have changed places in line 100 times the odds remain the same. Just because the winning ticket was purchased one a head or one behind any particular action, has nothing to do with the actual fall of the winning numbers. The series of numbers (any series) that proceeding customer bought are just as likely to win as any other. And once again their is no logic associated to the order of purchase.

If I walk up and purchase a quick pick number and get the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 it does not influance in any way what series of numbers the following customer recieves. Nor does the series of numbers the customer that preceeded me influance what I recieve. He isjust as likely to recieve the same numbers that I recieved as any other. Those numbers are not preordained in any way.

And we won't even get into the luck, odds, fate, religion of the actual random picking of the winning numbers. Figure this way each person buying a lottery ticket had some one a head and behind him each and every time some one wins the guy in front or the guy to the rear had the same odds of winning. They ain't no karma in math.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
I don't think anyone is saying it worked in his favor out of any effort on his/anyone/anythings' part. It's just that he happened to be next in line. If the guy hadn't cut him off, HE would have been next in line, and thus received whatever number the computer spit out, but not the winning number. It's just funny in retrospect that he happened to be cut off in line, but I don't think anyone here thinks that was planned in any way. Just ironic. You keep talking about "odds", but it isn't about odds at all, it's about a guy winning the lottery because he got pushed back one place in line. Are you saying that had he not been cut off he still would have won? Or that the winning number would not belong to either of them? The numbers get spit out randomly. He got cut off by a guy, so he got the next random number, which happened to be a winning number. Had the guy not cut him off it wouldn't have happened, the guy who cut him off would have won. There is no way the computer would spit out a different number based on people in line.

Let me try my own analogy: Let's say there's a shuffled deck of cards, nobody has seen them, and a line of people. Each person is told to take the top card and write it on paper and toss it in a fishbowl, one by one through the line. Then later a random card from the newly shuffled deck will be chosen and that card holder would be the winner. Mary is in the front of the line and takes the top card. It's a Queen of hearts. Tom is next in line, takes a card, it's a nine of diamonds. Etc etc through the line, random people, shuffled deck, each taking a random card from the top of the deck. Then a person reaches into the newly shuffled deck, grabs a card, any card and announces "Queen of hearts is the winner!" If Mary had stepped out of line to blow her nose, TOM would have won. He would have taken the Queen instead of the nine, because it was at the top of the deck and he would have been next in line had Mary not stepped aside. Same thing with the random spitting of lotto numbers. It was going to spit out that number no matter what, so whoever happened to be at the front of the line when it spat out that number (which later would be determined to be the winning number) would win.

 

[PineappleMama]

And don't forget that they're randomly generated in several states.

Even if those numbers had been 'set' to come up at that particular moment if the clerk had delayed by a second to itch his nose then some clerk in Texas could have pushed the button at just the right moment to make them come up.

Boy this is reminding me of the time I took DH to bingo... got him one of the computer things since daubing didn't seem his style and he asks me "Are you sure these are sufficiently randomized?"

 

[journey11]

I love stories like that.

 

[welasharon]

I'm going with the snickers version. I don't want logic. I want justice.

 

[twentynine]

Quote:
I don't think anyone is saying it worked in his favor out of any effort on his/anyone/anythings' part. It's just that he happened to be next in line. If the guy hadn't cut him off, HE would have been next in line, and thus received whatever number the computer spit out, but not the winning number. It's just funny in retrospect that he happened to be cut off in line, but I don't think anyone here thinks that was planned in any way. Just ironic. You keep talking about "odds", but it isn't about odds at all, it's about a guy winning the lottery because he got pushed back one place in line. Are you saying that had he not been cut off he still would have won? Or that the winning number would not belong to either of them? The numbers get spit out randomly. He got cut off by a guy, so he got the next random number, which happened to be a winning number. Had the guy not cut him off it wouldn't have happened, the guy who cut him off would have won. There is no way the computer would spit out a different number based on people in line.

Let me try my own analogy: Let's say there's a shuffled deck of cards, nobody has seen them, and a line of people. Each person is told to take the top card and write it on paper and toss it in a fishbowl, one by one through the line. Then later a random card from the newly shuffled deck will be chosen and that card holder would be the winner. Mary is in the front of the line and takes the top card. It's a Queen of hearts. Tom is next in line, takes a card, it's a nine of diamonds. Etc etc through the line, random people, shuffled deck, each taking a random card from the top of the deck. Then a person reaches into the newly shuffled deck, grabs a card, any card and announces "Queen of hearts is the winner!" If Mary had stepped out of line to blow her nose, TOM would have won. He would have taken the Queen instead of the nine, because it was at the top of the deck and he would have been next in line had Mary not stepped aside. Same thing with the random spitting of lotto numbers. It was going to spit out that number no matter what, so whoever happened to be at the front of the line when it spat out that number (which later would be determined to be the winning number) would win.

Yes! I understand your analogy.

However, that is not how quick pick numbers are chosen. Their is no stack, their is no order, their is no denomination.

Line cutter purchases a quick pick, number generator generates a random series of numbers, any series of numbers, completely at random. Winnerman next in line purchases a quick pick, number generator generates a random series of numbers. The first number is not influanced by any proceeding number and the following number is not influanced by the line cutter number. In this case their is no known to describe the unknown. The cards are a given value that does not change a queen of hearts is always the queen of hearts. Randomly generated numbers are just that, the proceeding is an unknown quantity and the following is an unknown, generator has no memory. Because the quantity is unknown the possiblity exist that two identical quick pick numbers can be issued consecutively, not likely, but not anymore unlikely than you walking into any lottery vender and buying the winning ticket via a quick pick purchase. That's why the chance exist for multiple winners, outside of the possibility of two people picking their numbers manually.

When comparing a quick pick lottery number to a deck of cards. Mary would have to pick the card (queen of hearts) off the top, look at the value, return the card to the deck, and the deck reshuffled, before Tom makes his pick. So if Tom cut in line and drew the queen of hearts, he would return it to the deck, the deck reshuffled, then Mary would pick. Her chance of picking the queen of hearts at that time would be the same as Tom's. And everyone following Mary would have the same identical odds of drawing the queen of hearts as Tom. In your analogy the card once picked is removed from play, lottery quick picks are not removed from play once purchased.