There's odds and then there's odds

[Frank]

You may have heard recently that a UK couple have won the Euromillions £1Million raffle TWICE. This is not the same as winning Euromillions though. Uk ticket buyers are given a free entry per line bought to a separate UK only £1Million prize raffle. Usually only one prize is issued per draw, but sometimes there will be 10 winners each getting £1Million, on rare occasions 100 winners. UK lottery operator Camelot said that the odds against winning this twice were 283 Billion to one, ( where in the UK a billion is now a thousand million or 10^9). There is an interesting discussion about what we really mean by odds, what assumptions we make and what question we are really asking wnen we ask what the odds are against anything. Depending on how well specified the question is, you get different answers. This expert explains it ..



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ght-not-be-as-slim-as-they-seem-10152213.html


So when different people come up with different answers, its usually because they are answering different versions of the same question.

 

[savagegoose]

i did note that they have been doing multiple winners for the million £ raffle every last Friday of the month over in UK , and had advised my uk internet friends, to always play at least that one draw, even for 1 ticket. if no others.

same goes to all uk people here.