Winning the Lottery

Again, I don’t want those of you who play the smaller lotteries to feel left out, so, today I’ll discuss the Deleware 6/35 lottery.  When everybody from ‘The First State’ gather around their TV’s to watch the lottery drawing and check their tickets, here’s how their odds of Winning the Lottery jackpot are changing as they watch.

If someone buys 1 ticket, their odds of winning the lottery jackpot before the drawing starts are 1:1,623,160. At that point, 0 numbers have been drawn. The first number will be drawn from a pool of 35 numbers. After that, there will only be 34 numbers left in the machine. So, the second number will be drawn from a pool of 34 numbers, and so on.

Now, if the first number drawn is a number on your ticket, your odds of winning the lottery jackpot just improved dramatically. You now have 1 correct number and you need to get 5 correct numbers out of 34. The odds of this happening are 1:278,256.

If the second number drawn is also on your ticket, your odds of winning the lottery jackpot just improved to 1:40,920. Here’s a table that shows how your odds of winning the lottery jackpot change as the drawing proceeds.

Correct Numbers Drawn      Odds of Winning the Lottery Jackpot

• 0                                                1:1,623,160
• 1                                                   1:278,256
• 2                                                     1:40,920
• 3                                                       1:4,960
• 4                                                          1:465
• 5                                                            1:30
• 6                                    Remember me in your will

After seeing five of the winning numbers on your ticket, you’ll be waiting with bated breath for the last and final number to be drawn. At that point, no one in the room will be breathing. One chance in 30 of Winning the Lottery! OMG!!!

Tags: odds of winning, odds of winning the lottery, Winning the Lottery //