When i sold the lottery there was 200 cards in a pack and 40 of them were guaranteed to be winners now that could just be £40 return on £200 or you could hit the pack with perhaps 3 of the top prizes in it as to check the card you need the 4 digit number thats hidden under the scratch bit so is very easy to notice if someones trying to sell dodgy tickets
so to get my 1 in 4.5 I would need to buy 200 cards.
well they must have something against this part of the world because I've not heard of anyone winning.
Most people keep quiet about winning a few grand or so, we had a few semi big winners who told us they'd won but for a lot of people i'd imagine a 10k win would just be new car or clear a load of debt and then they just carry on as if nothing really happened
But obviously camelot know where every ticket is shipped to and quite a lot of prizes are not claimed either due to packs being returned at the end of its run or people not checking them properly (but i always double checked every ticket in the bin just in case of an extra few quid )
and couriers can't nick the packs as they have to be scanned in on arrival and then when each pack is opened it needs to be activated as well so even if you nick a load of them from a shop camelot can make them worthless in a few moments
but do they still print the odds on the back of the cards? and if so the probability should add up to about 22.2% to make a 1 in 4.5 card chance
obviously with people buying cards in ones and twos the sequence has got out of order
you'll find that even with the "1 in 5" thing you need to buy nine, to be absolutely sure of winning
trust me
work it out with a pen and paper if you don't believe it
Simply not true.
After 9 cards at "1 in 5" the odds on winning at least once are 0.866 but the odds of none winning are 0.134
You have to buy 20 cards to have over a 99% probability of getting at least one winner
It's called a "binomial distribution". Just as tossing a coin ten times doesn't guarantee you a single heads.
They arent a con, its a gamble, a safer one than say £1 a spin fruit machines. Pay your pound, scratch, if you win happy days, if you dont then just look at it as an investment. Its what i do when i play fruitys and stuff, set a limit, you may get lucky, if not walk away.
Easier said than done though.
I dont agree its a fools game though. This woman i know won a quater of a million on a deal or no deal scratchcard.
After 9 cards at "1 in 5" the odds on winning at least once are 0.866 but the odds of none winning are 0.134
You have to buy 20 cards to have over a 99% probability of getting at least one winner
It's called a "binomial distribution". Just as tossing a coin ten times doesn't guarantee you a single heads.
what I said was both completely true and also total bollocks, which, since we're talking maths, <edit>
if a roll of cards contains literally 1 in 5 winners, that is 1 in every 5 cards on the roll starting from the beginning, then buying 5 will give you 1 winner
take out any number not a multiple of 5, and it goes wrong
They arent a con, its a gamble, a safer one than say £1 a spin fruit machines. Pay your pound, scratch, if you win happy days, if you dont then just look at it as an investment. Its what i do when i play fruitys and stuff, set a limit, you may get lucky, if not walk away.
Easier said than done though.
I dont agree its a fools game though. This woman i know won a quater of a million on a deal or no deal scratchcard.
34+ million tickets with a payout of 58% meaning that theres 20 million quid to be won overall with the odds of 2.86 million to 1 to get one of the top prizes of 5 grand
but all the numbers are there for anyone willing to spend a few moments with a calculator to work out the odds
what I said was both completely true and also total bollocks, which, since we're talking maths, <edit>
if a roll of cards contains literally 1 in 5 winners, that is 1 in every 5 cards on the roll starting from the beginning, then buying 5 will give you 1 winner
take out any number not a multiple of 5, and it goes wrong
buying 5 cards will give you 0,1 or 2 wins
to guarantee 1 win, you need to buy 9
true, but bollocks
Ah - I get your point if the winner is regularly placed on the roll but your accumulation falls down when the distribution is random. I really can't see Camelot producing cards where, literally, every 5th card is a winner as it would be too easy to beat the system.
They arent a con, its a gamble, a safer one than say £1 a spin fruit machines. Pay your pound, scratch, if you win happy days, if you dont then just look at it as an investment. Its what i do when i play fruitys and stuff, set a limit, you may get lucky, if not walk away.
Easier said than done though.
I dont agree its a fools game though. This woman i know won a quater of a million on a deal or no deal scratchcard.
that must have been a dream for her.i like to imagine the winners are struggling hard workers.
Ah - I get your point if the winner is regularly placed on the roll but your accumulation falls down when the distribution is random. I really can't see Camelot producing cards where, literally, every 5th card is a winner as it would be too easy to beat the system.
no, not every 5th card is a winner, randomly distributed among every 5 cards........(see how fiendishly clever they are?)
if everyone bought 5, Camelot would go bust!!! They're relying on some poor sod going in who can only afford to buy 1, and it screws up the system.....
Not that suspicious... if more than twenty people bought 12 cards each, then you could safely assume it would happen to at least one of them. It wouldn't be suspicious.
That's why I said that if a single person bought 12 cards and didn't win, that it would be a bit suspicious. :P
The point is that its a way to increase the percentage of winning cards without really loosing any money. Print 30 million tickets 6 million £1 prizes bumps the odds up to look rather favourablly as its now already 5:1 in your favour to win,=now with extra prizes, the odds you win a prize is less then even better at something like 4.6:1
I buy them occasionally instead of doing lotto, Recently won £40 twice and a tenner,and a fiver all on scrabble scratch cards...I've won more than i've done doing the lotto..:)
The point is that its a way to increase the percentage of winning cards without really loosing any money. Print 30 million tickets 6 million £1 prizes bumps the odds up to look rather favourablly as its now already 5:1 in your favour to win,=now with extra prizes, the odds you win a prize is less then even better at something like 4.6:1
I buy them occasionally instead of doing lotto, Recently won £40 twice and a tenner,and a fiver all on scrabble scratch cards...I've won more than i've done doing the lotto..:)
your only the second person all day to get a prize over £10.
When i sold the lottery there was 200 cards in a pack and 40 of them were guaranteed to be winners now that could just be £40 return on £200 or you could hit the pack with perhaps 3 of the top prizes in it as to check the card you need the 4 digit number thats hidden under the scratch bit so is very easy to notice if someones trying to sell dodgy tickets
this kind of thing. it's not a fiddle, it's just not like throwing a dice
While the odds of getting a ticket are 1 in 5 theres nothing that says every block of 5 must have a winner, had some guy once who brought 20 tickets in a line and didn't win a thing so they are spread out through the pack at random
Now if you really want to increase your chances get friendly with someone who has access to the lottery databases and can do a quick bit of IT magic and give you all the winning ticket numbers for your local shop and then visit and profit
Iv bought scratchcards regularly over the years, usually two to three a week and occasionally go a bit mad at Christmas etc. Its curious that Iv won more just buying two or three. I thought Id won twenty on a Lucky Lines card recently took it in and it turned out to be £100.00. (I still dont know how I missed it but you have to be careful on some of the cards).The odds on winning that prize are 3000:1approx so you have to be lucky -its over 4 million to one to win the top 300,000 prize.
For anyone interested this is the National Lottery page listing the remaining prizes for each card-odds can be viewed by clicking the named areas.
Comments
my teacher was to busy supping vodka,but despite that I consider myself of average intelligence.
so to get my 1 in 4.5 I would need to buy 200 cards.
well they must have something against this part of the world because I've not heard of anyone winning.
Most people keep quiet about winning a few grand or so, we had a few semi big winners who told us they'd won but for a lot of people i'd imagine a 10k win would just be new car or clear a load of debt and then they just carry on as if nothing really happened
But obviously camelot know where every ticket is shipped to and quite a lot of prizes are not claimed either due to packs being returned at the end of its run or people not checking them properly (but i always double checked every ticket in the bin just in case of an extra few quid
and couriers can't nick the packs as they have to be scanned in on arrival and then when each pack is opened it needs to be activated as well so even if you nick a load of them from a shop camelot can make them worthless in a few moments
but do they still print the odds on the back of the cards? and if so the probability should add up to about 22.2% to make a 1 in 4.5 card chance
Simply not true.
After 9 cards at "1 in 5" the odds on winning at least once are 0.866 but the odds of none winning are 0.134
You have to buy 20 cards to have over a 99% probability of getting at least one winner
It's called a "binomial distribution". Just as tossing a coin ten times doesn't guarantee you a single heads.
Easier said than done though.
I dont agree its a fools game though. This woman i know won a quater of a million on a deal or no deal scratchcard.
what I said was both completely true and also total bollocks, which, since we're talking maths, <edit>
if a roll of cards contains literally 1 in 5 winners, that is 1 in every 5 cards on the roll starting from the beginning, then buying 5 will give you 1 winner
take out any number not a multiple of 5, and it goes wrong
buying 5 cards will give you 0,1 or 2 wins
to guarantee 1 win, you need to buy 9
true, but bollocks
100% ......
34+ million tickets with a payout of 58% meaning that theres 20 million quid to be won overall with the odds of 2.86 million to 1 to get one of the top prizes of 5 grand
but all the numbers are there for anyone willing to spend a few moments with a calculator to work out the odds
and heres the list to the details for all the current games https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/scratchcard/info_prizes.ftl
Ah - I get your point if the winner is regularly placed on the roll but your accumulation falls down when the distribution is random. I really can't see Camelot producing cards where, literally, every 5th card is a winner as it would be too easy to beat the system.
You need to learn some basic probability.
that must have been a dream for her.i like to imagine the winners are struggling hard workers.
no, not every 5th card is a winner, randomly distributed among every 5 cards........(see how fiendishly clever they are?)
if everyone bought 5, Camelot would go bust!!! They're relying on some poor sod going in who can only afford to buy 1, and it screws up the system.....
ha ha of course your right,this thread is helping teach me.
That's why I said that if a single person bought 12 cards and didn't win, that it would be a bit suspicious. :P
In which way are they selected so that the probability of a randomly purchased scratch card being a winner isn't equal with all other cards?
The point is that its a way to increase the percentage of winning cards without really loosing any money. Print 30 million tickets 6 million £1 prizes bumps the odds up to look rather favourablly as its now already 5:1 in your favour to win,=now with extra prizes, the odds you win a prize is less then even better at something like 4.6:1
However when you look at the odds of winning even just a fiver, then you may weep. Have you looked at the odds structure on the back of the card? View them online https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/scratchcard/info_prizes.ftl
EDIT:
Meh i see i was late in posting this and people have already given this link etc.
yeah they make fools of us.so I for one won't buy anymore.
your only the second person all day to get a prize over £10.
this kind of thing. it's not a fiddle, it's just not like throwing a dice
Now if you really want to increase your chances get friendly with someone who has access to the lottery databases and can do a quick bit of IT magic and give you all the winning ticket numbers for your local shop and then visit and profit
For anyone interested this is the National Lottery page listing the remaining prizes for each card-odds can be viewed by clicking the named areas.
http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/scratchcard/info_prizes.ftl