Document text
Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 18, 2006 Since You Asked: Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk? The odds of winning the lottery are gigantic, but my question is this. Since there has been an unusual number of large lottery winners in this area, does that increase the odds against anyone winning in the valley? Should I stop buying a ticket? — Nancy F., Medford The odds are consistent no matter what, Nancy. Having a bunch of local people win the lottery all at once certainly is unlikely, but that doesn’t affect the odds of you winning after it happens. One Since You Asked researcher recalls a high school science fair project on probability and statistics. He had a computer flip a hypothetical coin to see what the odds are of it landing on heads or tails. When flipped 10 or 20 times, it always seemed to favor one side or the other. But the more times you flipped the coin (up to a million in the experiment), the closer the outcome gets to 50-50, which is always the probability every time you flip. No matter if you’ve had 29 tails, that 30th flip is no more likely to be heads than it was on the first flip. Same goes for those lottery numbers — even though the Oregon Lottery publishes frequency charts that some folks use to decide which numbers have come up too often and which ones haven’t shown up enough, the fine print warns you that playing frequencies doesn’t give any advantages. Each number has the same odds of showing up each week. Advertisement The thing about the lottery is that its marketing plays on intuition, luck and hope — how many times have you had "that feeling" you were going to get lucky? It works against them in concerns like the one you express. Remember what the Oregon Lottery’s logo is: crossed fingers. No matter what, every time you bet on Powerball, for instance, the Oregon Lottery says you’ve got 1 chance in 146,107,962 of hitting the jackpot. Doesn’t matter the size of the jackpot or the number of tickets sold. Not to get too gloomy, Nancy, but for comparison here are some odds of ways you might die in the U.S. before you win the lottery: lightning (1 in 4.3 million), falling down the stairs (1 in 200,000), bee/wasp sting (1 in 5.9 million), bathtub drowning (1 in 800,000), antibiotic reaction (1 in 7 million), car wreck (1 in 6,000), falling object (1 in 400,000). Those figures are from the National Safety Council. Oh, and you’re also more likely to be attacked by a shark (1 in 10 million). Of course, you can’t win if you don’t play! Good luck! Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to Since You Asked: Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk? ">[email protected] . We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Casinos Canada dvd-r Generic Viagra Myspace Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Student Loans Sudoku Online Advertisement s Advertisement