Have a burning desire to win Lotto? - AI is here to help!

[onetrack]

So, you have this burning desire to beat all the odds, and win Lotto? Well a programmer has produced an AI programme to assist you! All you need to do, is download it, and use it responsibly!

 

https://github.com/CorvusCodex/LotteryAi

[rgmwa]

Obviously doesn’t work or he’d be using it himself.

[onetrack]

He does have quite a lot to say about the accuracy and reliability of the forecasting of the numbers to be drawn, and to not rely on them absolutely!

[rgmwa]

I tried to do that in the 1980’s using Finite State Machines to teach the computer to pick patterns in data sets. Hopefully his efforts will be more successful. 

[old man emu]

Remember the acronym GIGO from back in the early days of the use of computers to analyse data? GIGO stands of "Garbage in, Garbage out", and means that the output is only as good as the input. That's all Artificial Intelligence does, analyse the data with which it is provided. In other words, it can only analyse what has happened before. It cannot predict what will happen in the future.

 

As for selecting six numbers from a group of forty, the probability of doing that is astonishingly low. We need to choose 6 numbers from 40. Fine, there are 40 choices for the first number, 39 for the second, 38 for the third, 37 for the fourth, 36 for the fifth and 35 for the sixth to give 40 x 39 x 38 x 37 x 36 x 35 (that’s a pretty big number!) But there are 6 numbers so above we have counted each possibility in 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 ways. This means that the number of ways of choosing a group of 6 numbers from 40 is  for each group.

 

That is for each entry to the game. That's why it's called "gambling". Gambling is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted.

 

[red750]

Played the same set of numbers for years, didn't do any good. Switched to Quick Picks, never won a fortune, but occasionally win the ticket price back. Only take a mini qp, 6 games. If you are meant to win, one game is all you need, if not, 500 games won't help. Just in it for the interest. As the old Tatt's motto said, you've got to be in it to win it.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

yep, red, but the odds are terrible. I once read that if you buy all the tickets, you only get a third of your money back. Is this true?

[red750]

I have never checked it out Bruce. I'm in it for the interest. If I don't get a prize, it doesn't break the bank. If I win a small prize, I can enter the next draw free, and maybe even have a Whopper for lunch. If I win more, so much the better. I've seen people walking away from the Lotto counter with a ticket 2 metres long. Cost them over $150. No guarantee that they won more than my 6 game ticket.

[onetrack]

It would take an army of helpers and you'd run out of time to buy all the tickets - and the ticket numbers are not limited, they can keep increasing up to the cut-off time, thus increasing the total prize pool.

There was an idiot here in W.A. about 20-odd years ago, who thought they could win first prize by buying half a million dollars worth of tickets - with a fraudulent cheque. They spent about $480,000.

The newsagent had to employ extra people to print the tickets - then found out the cheque had bounced. It sent the newsagent bankrupt, and there was only about $180,000 in win money to cover the loss.

The bloke was jailed for fraud, but I guess that was little comfort to the newsagent, who lost everything.

[red750]

3 minutes ago, onetrack said:

It would take an army of helpers and you'd run out of time to buy all the tickets

Not to mention the queue of customers waiting to buy a ticket.

[Marty_d]

29 minutes ago, onetrack said:

It would take an army of helpers and you'd run out of time to buy all the tickets - and the ticket numbers are not limited, they can keep increasing up to the cut-off time, thus increasing the total prize pool.

There was an idiot here in W.A. about 20-odd years ago, who thought they could win first prize by buying half a million dollars worth of tickets - with a fraudulent cheque. They spent about $480,000.

The newsagent had to employ extra people to print the tickets - then found out the cheque had bounced. It sent the newsagent bankrupt, and there was only about $180,000 in win money to cover the loss.

The bloke was jailed for fraud, but I guess that was little comfort to the newsagent, who lost everything.

Ummm... what sort of idiot would take a cheque for half a million from someone wanting to buy lotto tickets?  

That sets off so many alarm bells.  Sorry for the newsagent who went broke, but if they're that gullible, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

[onetrack]

It's not quite as stupid as it sounds, Marty, apparently the cheque presenter made a convincing case and was very persuasive.

It was probably more than 20 years ago, might have been 30 years ago, I can't find any record online of the incident now. It was in the pre-internet era where cheques were presented daily, and normally honoured.

But yes, the sheer size of the cheque would raise suspicions - but there's plenty of people who are quite capable of producing a payment of that level, without batting an eyelid.

 

One of the things that interests me about Lotto is the number of obviously very wealthy people who buy tickets. They spend huge amounts on tickets, I've seen them spend $200-300 at a time, but it's obvious they don't really need the money.

 

Some interesting stories on Reddit - and one of the outstanding things about Lotto wins, is how few people can handle their wins wisely, most blow it within a short time and are back to a 9-5 job with no money.

My workshop neighbour had a mate who won $30M, he reckoned you would never know, he didn't splash the cash in an extravagant manner, but he drove a top of the range Beemer.

 

The in-laws of one nephew of SWMBO won $1.9M around the early 1990's. The ticket was shared by two women, one of them was SWMBO's nephews MIL. Her hubby was just a taxi driver.

They got $950,000 and enjoyed an "upgraded" lifestyle for about 3 years - then the taxi driver got cancer, and died! I suppose at least he had 3 years of good worry-free lifestyle.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/15f4iyf/do_you_know_anyone_that_has_actually_won_lotto/

 

I'm convinced some people are just plain lucky, time after time. The son of a former farmer client, an already wealthy family, bought a "scratchie" when they first came out in the early 1980's. The top prize was $50,000.

So Ross buys a scratchie, and wins the $50,000 first prize! But wait, it gets better. The Lotteries Commission had a "second chance" draw of $25,000 on the scratchies, whereby you placed your losing ticket in the second chance draw.

So Ross buys another scratchie and loses - and puts his losing ticket in the second chance draw - and wins the $25,000!! This was only about 18 mths after his $50,000 scratchie win.

 

Then Ross moves in closer to Perth, and buys quite a few hundred acres in a very nice high rainfall area about 80kms NE of Perth. He does very well out of the farm, over about 30 years - then a mining company rolls up and starts drilling on his farm.

Next thing, the mining company announces a massive find of platinum group metals on his and neighbours properties - with a mine planned in the next couple of years - so they offer to buy Ross's farm at DOUBLE the market price!!

Bear in mind that farmland prices have already gone ballistic, tripling in value in the last 15-20 years - so Ross walks out with another mega-million dollar win!! The bloke has the Midas touch!!

 

Edited September 10 by onetrack

[red750]

5 minutes ago, onetrack said:

some people are just plain lucky,

There was a report a couple of weeks ago about a guy who won 1st division twice in the same year. I can't remember any other details.

[red750]

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

It's not quite as stupid as it sounds, Marty, apparently the cheque presenter made a convincing case and was very persuasive.

It was probably more than 20 years ago, might have been 30 years ago, I can't find any record online of the incident now. It was in the pre-internet era where cheques were presented daily, and normally honoured.

But yes, the sheer size of the cheque would raise suspicions - but there's plenty of people who are quite capable of producing a payment of that level, without batting an eyelid.

 

One of the things that interests me about Lotto is the number of obviously very wealthy people who buy tickets. They spend huge amounts on tickets, I've seen them spend $200-300 at a time, but it's obvious they don't really need the money.

 

Some interesting stories on Reddit - and one of the outstanding things about Lotto wins, is how few people can handle their wins wisely, most blow it within a short time and are back to a 9-5 job with no money.

My workshop neighbour had a mate who won $30M, he reckoned you would never know, he didn't splash the cash in an extravagant manner, but he drove a top of the range Beemer.

 

The in-laws of one nephew of SWMBO won $1.9M around the early 1990's. The ticket was shared by two women, one of them was SWMBO's nephews MIL. Her hubby was just a taxi driver.

They got $950,000 and enjoyed an "upgraded" lifestyle for about 3 years - then the taxi driver got cancer, and died! I suppose at least he had 3 years of good worry-free lifestyle.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/15f4iyf/do_you_know_anyone_that_has_actually_won_lotto/

 

I'm convinced some people are just plain lucky, time after time. The son of a former farmer client, an already wealthy family, bought a "scratchie" when they first came out in the early 1980's. The top prize was $50,000.

So Ross buys a scratchie, and wins the $50,000 first prize! But wait, it gets better. The Lotteries Commission had a "second chance" draw of $25,000 on the scratchies, whereby you placed your losing ticket in the second chance draw.

So Ross buys another scratchie and loses - and puts his losing ticket in the second chance draw - and wins the $25,000!! This was only about 18 mths after his $50,000 scratchie win.

 

Then Ross moves in closer to Perth, and buys quite a few hundred acres in a very nice high rainfall area about 80kms NE of Perth. He does very well out of the farm, over about 30 years - then a mining company rolls up and starts drilling on his farm.

Next thing, the mining company announces a massive find of platinum group metals on his and neighbours properties - with a mine planned in the next couple of years - so they offer to buy Ross's farm at DOUBLE the market price!!

Bear in mind that farmland prices have already gone ballistic, tripling in value in the last 15-20 years - so Ross walks out with another mega-million dollar win!! The bloke has the Midas touch!!

 

Maybe people were more trusting back then because scams weren't as common - but some cheques were still rubber, so you'd think some proof of liquidity would be required before such a massive purchase.

Especially as it was so long ago - an amount like that would buy several houses 30 years ago (average Australian house price was $184k - in places like Tassie, far less - I bought my first house for $70k around then).

There are people who win multiple times, I'm no statistician but I believe the odds are exactly the same each time no matter how many times you've won before - so while it appears strange, it's probably not.

[newsaroundme]

1 hour ago, Marty_d said:

Maybe people were more trusting back then because scams weren't as common - but some cheques were still rubber, so you'd think some proof of liquidity would be required before such a massive purchase.

Especially as it was so long ago - an amount like that would buy several houses 30 years ago (average Australian house price was $184k - in places like Tassie, far less - I bought my first house for $70k around then).

There are people who win multiple times, I'm no statistician but I believe the odds are exactly the same each time no matter how many times you've won before - so while it appears strange, it's probably not.

I remember my parents bought a property for around $30k. I can't believe it with what house prices today are. If only property was that accessible again.

[spacesailor]

It is.

Just not were you want it ! .

A church at the back of Dubbo went home for under $30,00 .

On 25 acres of land . Someone bought it & resold that church for $35,000 

On 5 acres . 

Queensland,  they sold  cattle paddocks at $ 1,000 an acre .(  n o livestock allowed ) now has dairy cattle on those " chemical " crop dusted fields .

spacesailor

 

 

 

 

 

[spacesailor]

Well ! .

There's the choice of a group of forumites joining together for a multiple

Lotto pick.  Like a work place Melbourne cup ' sweepstake ' .

spacesailor