Is it + EV to play scratch-offs and lottery?

[Tebowl]

I'm getting 3,000 lottery tickets today f it ,lets see what happens

[goofyre]

I've been dabbling with powerball last 2 weeks, since its been around 130 Million. I'll also buy $20 in cash words to kill time if I have to go to secretary of state or somewhere else where there is a long wait.

[BeatTheJerk]

I'll answer your question with a question... Is it +EV to play Over Unders that are -200 on both sides? That's essentially what the Lottery is. I'll break it down even further... if you were at a Family Reunion and the Lottery was in charge of doing a raffle and they sold one hundred tickets at $1 a piece... when the drawing happened there would be 1 prize and it would be for $50. That's the Lottery.

Way to dumby it down for the big DUMBY.

[milwaukee mike]

Interesting. When you say "one or two days left" does that mean that any unsold books will be taken off the shelf?

no, because the store owners usually don't know how many days are left and even if they knew they could and would keep selling them.
the lottery just estimates how many days are left based on sales figures, so if they say "one day left" that means there are around 4000 tickets floating around out there. after another week if you can find some, and one or more of the $100k hasn't been claimed yet, then you are very much in a +ev situation.

[hornsrgrt]

serious question, are they beatable?

I have thought about playing the pick three like this...
buy 100-199...cost me $100 for nooner...if it loses, play it again that night...
will play those same numbers until I get to the max win....if I still haven't won (I think the states rip you off and only pay $600), than I will increase my bet to eitehr $1.50 or $2.00 per play....keep doing this same strategy...
The states don't have TABLE LIMITS on the amount you can play so sooner or later it will hit...
Good luck

[Tebowl]

I guess the house always wins but player also wins from time to time