Hey, this is blackjack.

I know this is complete lunancy, but i was wondering if you could get and edge at lottery the way you edge at cards. Let's say we were using cards to represent the numbers [ace of clubs for #1]10 of clubs #10[ace of diamonds#11]10 of diamonds#20etc...or even 52 cards for 52 numbers however you want to devise it. At the time i was using 30 cards to symbol 30 numbers. first you must realize that drawing 5 cards from a 52 card deck are the same odds of drawing 5 numbers from a 52 number lotto grid.etc....now heres the kicker we know that if we draw 4 black cards from a deck, odds are highly favorable that the next card will be red 4:1 ratio, furthermore if the first three were black chances are the next two will be red 3:2 ratio as a matter of fact this should happen 66.6% of the time.the same effect applies with odd and even#'s now imagine that the first 1-26#'s were black and the last 27-52#'s were red you'll get a ratio of 3:2 66.6% of the time, so then it should be true that 2#'s should be odd and 2#'s should be even /and 2#'s should be between1-26 and 2#'s should be between27-52.so heres what you do,/ pick one odd#, one even#1-26 / and one odd#,one even#27-52/ [4] now just toss in the last ball anywhere dont matter, the numbers will fall in this pattern 50% of the time[try this for yourself] quite intriguing, now play 4 grids at one time and DO NOT use the same number twice. you'll be amazed just how close you come. this system does not work on pick3 or pick4 because of dependent trial process. for best results the lower the lotto number grid the more effective this will be. and if you play with 6 numbers aplly your numbers in the same manner. well i hope that answers your question and just in case good luck. please note: these are my own theories and SHOULD NOT be taken litterally.nevertheless i find it fun and exciting for the spirit. Feel free to do a math check. For entertainment only.

You CAN NOT get an edge at the lottery by systematically picking your numbers.

If there is a way to beat the lotto, I'm sure it's illegal...

Each numbers have the same chance to come out and they will be drawn out at the same time so, unless some numbers are removed before the drawing your theory doesn't work. You can make any kind of categories such as small/big numbers or anything, but you won't get an edge like that.

To put it simple (I hope), if you bet on blackjack but that you can't change your bet in the game, you won't get an edge unless the game already have one. Since you can't change your numbers or bet on lottery, you won't have an edge.

If you want an edge, try to wait for a big progressive jackpot at the lottery and take numbers nobody else took. If you take a number someone else took, you just reduced your EV by 50% because you will have to share your jackpot, so unless the jackpot is sky high then the only numbers that would be +EV in a situation where the jackpot is higher than the odds of getting it would be the numbers that nobody takes, so when you will have found a way of taking the combinations nobody else have you will be able to have an edge at the lottery.

The thing is, even if you could find a way to increase your odds, you still have to overcome the HUGE house advantage. I don't know exactly what it is, but I think lotteries have up to 50% house advantages.

But once in a while the jackpot is so big that the game is above the break even point, even tho it probably have a Standard Deviation going in the thousands :laugh:

Yes, and you might end up splitting the payout with several other winners which would bring it back down to a -EV game.

-Sonny-

Actually, sometimes the game is +EV on the surface, but you end up paying almost half of it back for taxes and it's really not. I'm pretty sure the lottery is not a good AP game.

I'd love to split the jackpot, because that would mean I actually won!

We rarely discuss the after-tax effects of winning AP money lol.

But paying half of +EV is still +EV lol.