Excerpt from Beaker's post:
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Because they have just as much chance as any other number??
Let's make it simple. Say you have 2 die ie dice. Do you bet a sum of 2 ie snake eyes 1-1 or do you bet a sum of 7. ie 1-6,2-5,3-4,4-3,5-2,6-1?
Play to win
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Probably for the first time I have to take exception to a post by Beaker. Comparing throwing dice to lottery games is like comparing apples to oranges, EXCEPT in Pick 3, 4, 5 and 6 games where duplicate numbers can occur. Throwing two dice has 36 possibilities, and a 2/6 lottery would have but 15 - 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 4-5, 4-6 and 5-6. The sum of 7 argument retains its validity, although there are but 3 possibilities, not 6.
If duplicate numbers were permitted in a 6/49 game there would have to be six sets of 49 balls - or six separate drawings of one ball from a full set of 49. There would be 13,841,287,201 possibilities (NOT allowing for sorted duplicates), not 13,983,816. The lowest possible sum would be 6 (1-1-1-1-1-1), not 21 (1-2-3-4-5-6). The highest possible sum would be 294 (49-49-49-49-49-49), not 279 (44-45-46-47-48-49).
Given this, I'd have to go along with Brad's statement. Any set of six specific numbers has the same chance of being drawn as any other set, no matter how much analysis is done or how eerie it may seem to appear.
gl
john