[Tutor] Can anyone help me?

[Smith, Jeff]

Aren't the odds just based on how many tickets you buy?  The odds aren't
affected by different people buying more tickets.  If only one person
buys a ticket in the entire lottery system, his odds of winning are the
same as if two people play, and the same as if 20 million play.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: bob [mailto:bgailer at alum.rpi.edu] 
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 10:17 AM
To: Nathan Pinno; Tutor at python.org
Subject: Re: [Tutor] Can anyone help me?


At 09:42 PM 10/27/2005, Nathan Pinno wrote:

>If I create a program that randomly draws 6 numbers, its like the 
>lottery.
>According to an article I read in Reader's Digest, if you get a Quick
Pick 
>- which is six numbers at random - you increase your odds of winning.

Odds are how many tickets you buy relative to how many tickets everyone 
else has bought. Has nothing to do with the mechanism for generating 
numbers. Any guesses you make are "random". You might as well buy
fortune 
cookies and copy the numbers in them. Or add 1 to each number. Or ....
No 
action on your part will ensure that you win, or give you a better shot
at 
winning than anyone else.

>I want to create a program that will imitate the Quick Pick process for
>myself.

So ask the lottery people what random number algorithm they use and
program 
it for yourself. Not that doing that will make any difference. 

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