
For the first time the expected value of a lotto ticket is greater than its cost - tomkwok
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/09/national-lottery-lotto-drawing-odds-of-winning-maths
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garethrees
The Guardian quotes Adam Rivers of KPMG as saying, “You’d need close to all 50
million eligible people in the UK to purchase at least one ticket in order for
the expected value to go below the £2 purchase price”

The Telegraph reports that 47 million tickets were sold.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12089331/lottery-
resu...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12089331/lottery-results-
tickets-lotto-jackpot-tv-channel-time-live.html)

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DrScump
Isn't it false to say "the expected value of a lotto ticket is greater than
its cost" as opposed to "the expected _cumulative_ value of _all_ lotto
tickets is greater than their total cost"?

Because, a given ticket can only have the values of jackpot (or share
thereof), intermediate prize (or share thereof), or zero (most being zero).

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thaumasiotes
This wouldn't be the first time; positive EV lotteries have happened often in
the past.

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ErikVandeWater
Interesting, but it shouldn't change people's behavior that the expected value
is positive. If you buy lottery tickets just for fun, then you will still buy
it, but if you are considering buying it for the utility it will generate it
still has a negative expected utility (because any amount of money over say -
10 million Euro - has incredibly small impact on your happiness, whereas those
2 pounds you spent on the ticket have a much greater effect on your utility).

