$49,851,871.00 LOTTO 6/49 Jackpot won in Alberta

[betplom]

Mathdotcom?

TAX FREE !

The $49,851,871.00 LOTTO 6/49 Jackpot for Wednesday May 20, 2009 was won by one lucky ticket purchased in Edmonton. This Saturday's Jackpot is an estimated $4 Million.(CP)

http://www.wclc.com/app/winning_numbers/prize_breakdown.html?pageName=lotto_649_extra.html&gameId=1114502

[bobbyfk]

[Matt Rain]

You're more likely to hit a 23-teamer than the Lotto 6/49 jackpot.

[bettilimbroke999]

6 out of 6 gets 50 mil, 5 out of 6 gets 6k, thats gotta suk a lil, strange there were 602 5 out of 6s and only one 6 out of 6

[betplom]

6 out of 6 gets 50 mil, 5 out of 6 gets 6k, thats gotta suk a lil, strange there were 602 5 out of 6s and only one 6 out of 6

those with 5 of 6 are feeling a little sick right now.

6 0f 6 and your set for life, 5 of 6 and you get a few mortgage payments covered.

No doubt the winner is a middle aged dude that "knew" his numbers were going to come up, after all he's been playing every lotto draw for the last 20 yrs.

[RogueJuror]

plommer dont tell me you play the lotto

[Matt Rain]

strange there were 602 5 out of 6s and only one 6 out of 6

Indeed... I must be missing something, cause hitting 5/6 is only 44 times more likely than 6/6 (1 chance in 318,814 to hit 5/6, 1 in roughly 14 million for the jackpot)

[betplom]

plommer dont tell me you play the lotto

Sometimes I play, not this time, but I have no problem throwing away anywhere from $4 -$10 when I play the lotto 6/49.

You can't win if you don't play.

[RogueJuror]

yes!! my 2 fav canadians, after fiveteamer

[betplom]

Indeed... I must be missing something, cause hitting 5/6 is only 44 times more likely than 6/6 (1 chance in 318,814 to hit 5/6, 1 in roughly 14 million for the jackpot)

http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/fred/Lotto/

How the Probabilities are Calculated

The following discussion is a very brief description of the combinatorics needed to derive the Lotto 6/49 probabilities.



Jackpot (all six winning numbers selected)

There are a total of 13,983,816 different groups of six numbers which could be drawn from the set {1, 2, ... , 49}. To see this we observe that there are 49 possibilities for the first number drawn, following which there are 48 possibilities for the second number, 47 for the third, 46 for the fourth, 45 for the fifth, and 44 for the sixth. If we multiply the numbers 49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44 we get 10,068,347,520. However, each possible group of six numbers (combination) can be drawn in different ways depending on which number in the group was drawn first, which was drawn second, and so on. There are 6 choices for the first, 5 for the second, 4 for the third, 3 for the fourth, 2 for the fifth, and 1 for the sixth. Multiply these numbers out to arrive at 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 720. We then need to divide 10,068,347,520 by 720 to arrive at the figure 13,983,816 as the number of different groups of six numbers (different picks). Since all numbers are assumed to be equally likely and since the probability of some number being drawn must be one, it follows that each pick of six numbers has a probability of 1/13,983,816 = 0.00000007151. This is roughly the same probability as obtaining 24 heads in succession when flipping a fair coin!


Second Prize (five winning numbers + bonus)

The pick of six must include 5 winning numbers plus the bonus. Since 5 of the six winning numbers must be picked, this means that one of the winning numbers must be excluded. There are six possibilities for the choice of excluded number and hence there are six ways for a pick of six to win the second place prize. The probability is thus 6/13,983,816 = 0.0000004291 which translates into odds against of 2,330,635:1.


Third Prize (five winning numbers selected, bonus number not selected)

As in the second prize there are six ways for a pick of six to include exactly five of the six drawn numbers. The remaining number must be one of the 42 numbers left over after the six winning numbers and the bonus number have been excluded. Thus there are a total of 6 x 42 = 252 ways for a pick of six to win the third prize. This becomes a probability of 252/13,983,816 = 0.00001802 or, equivalently, odds against of 55490.3:1.