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Math challenge - Mega Millions white ball range
There are 70 white (main) balls in Mega Millions. The player chooses 5 balls from 1 to 70 (or opts for a Quick Pick to randomly choose the same). Define R (for range) as max ball - min ball + 1 . For example, if the player chooses the balls {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, then R = 5. Now consider the case where the balls are chosen randomly, such as a Quick Pick or lottery drawing for the winning numbers. R is now a random variable, and the set of all possible values of R is {1, 2, 3, ... , 70}. Suppose th
Apr 29, 2023, 11:17 am - Orange71 - Mathematics Forum

Mega millions odds
This might be a silly question but Mega millions has published odds of 12,607,306 without the bonus ball I keep coming up with 12,103,014 What am I missing?
Mar 31, 2023, 5:38 pm - ScoobyDue - Mathematics Forum

Mega Millions - is a $1, $2, or $3 ticket the best value (EV)?
In my state there are three types of ticket options for Mega Millions: (1) A regular ticket at $2, (2) A Megaplier ticket for $3 with enhanced non-Jackpot prizes, or (3) Just The Jackpot , $1 - no non-Jackpot prizes. Which is the best value ? To make this a tangible question, we need to define value in a statistical probability sense. I'm going to define this as the highest Expected Value (EV) per unit bet option. I've explained EV in previous post. The best option in terms of EV
Jul 26, 2022, 8:36 pm - Orange71 - Mathematics Forum

Mega Millions Just The JackpotReply
For those answers, did you assume just one jackpot winner? If not, what number of tickets did you assume were sold? I did the 3rd calculation a while back, factoring in taxes. I remember that it didn't make sense, from an expected return viewpoint, to play Mega Millions until the jackpot was roughly $600M, so your results are in the right ballpark, and are most likely correct. The other calculation of relevance, along these lines, is the number of plays needed for the variance of the EV
Jul 16, 2023, 8:52 pm - Wavepack - Mathematics Forum

Mega Millions Just The Jackpot
In my state the lottery commission offers an alternative to the regular $2 Mega Millions ticket. It's called Just The Jackpot . (I'll call it JTJ for short.) You get two tickets for $3, but you can only win the jackpot. Lower tier prizes are eliminated. Two interesting questions arise: (1) At what Expected Value of the Jackpot does the JTJ offer a better expected value of return per unit bet compared to a $2 regular ticket, and (2) At what Expected Values of the Jackpot do a regular $2 ticket an
Jul 16, 2023, 12:06 pm - Orange71 - Mathematics Forum

Mega Millions Just The JackpotReply
Answered by Google. Bard The expected value of a lottery ticket is the average of the possible prizes, weighted by their probability. For a regular Mega Millions ticket, the expected value is about $0.63. This means that, on average, for every $2 you spend on a ticket, you will expect to win about $0.63. The expected value of a JTJ ticket is about $1.26. This means that, on average, for every $3 you spend on a ticket, you will expect to win about $1.26. So, the JTJ ticket offers a
Aug 3, 2023, 6:59 am - mrtckw - Mathematics Forum

how to make a lottery generator for mega millionReply
Click on USA MEGA, then Mega Millions, then Statistics. It will tell you how many times each number has hit and the last time it hit. Click on the title above each column to change the orders/arrangement.
Apr 28, 2023, 5:06 pm - grwurston - Mathematics Forum

Mega millions oddsReply
In the current format of Mega Millions, there are only 24 tickets that can match all 5 white balls and miss the gold ball. Since there are 302575350 total tickets, the exact odds are calculated by 302575350/24 = 12607306.25 (and rounded to 12607306 for the published odds).
Apr 2, 2023, 7:29 pm - cottoneyedjoe - Mathematics Forum

Mega Millions Just The JackpotReply
I should of mentioned, for the variance question, that an unbiased mean estimator is used. I ask the variance question because the answer makes explicit the ridiculously large sample size needed to get a reasonably low variance of the estimator of the Mega Millions EV. The normal lotto player has a relatively small sample size, so the applicability of this EV analysis is of limited value.
Jul 17, 2023, 2:28 pm - Wavepack - Mathematics Forum

Pseudo-random numbers from irrational numbersReply
Here is another chunk of code to generate Powerball and Mega Millions numbers (double matrix) based on the same idea. https://sagecell.sagemath.org/?z=eJx1VE2P2zYQvQvQfxh0DxHtrJffIhdxD4seu0CwPQSF4AKyRNsK9OFIFNY_v0NZjrVoasAQOfPevDcjUg_wdRhd2T32eVt2DXzt3l2_z-v66dUdc3it6rrq2gGKrtl3Axx6xFR9n3uM5jW0Y7N3_RBHcTSlSldUDcar5tz1HlZxdHS-6FrvLj4hm3PvCtiCoDQwvr3gWlt4mMtAd4D3U-UdBAMDJMUpb48OfAcphUPXw-sriaO3QOP6A6135X9JXN1JcfQAf3WN-4V5aPLSwThU7RH-mP0fxrYIKHiv_Klqf_bVdOVYu02o9nc3QpG3cNM7uSEkcjQ3V0kEWa1ua_YkC
Oct 18, 2022, 9:41 pm - cottoneyedjoe - Mathematics Forum