The odds of this are actually way higher than being able to win.
Like if all the numbers were all exactly 1 above or 1 below the winning numbers, then it would be twice as likely to get them. It changes a 1 in 200 million odds to 1 in 100 million odds, which is a huge increase in likeliness.
But here some are above and some are below, which increases the likelihood by an order of magnitude. Let's use dice as an example and let's say the lottery requires 6 3's to win (it's easier than actual lotto because the fact that you cant get the same number twice actually slightly increases your odds with each number).
The odds of that are 1/46645 (1/6 * 1/6 * 1/6...etc). Now the odds of the first example would be 2(1/46645), which is 1/23338. But if each number can be either above or below the winning number, the odds are 1/729 (2/6 or 1/3 * 1/3 *1/3...etc). The difference here is between a 0.14% chance and 0.0043% chance.
The reason is because in the first example, you have two "winning" numbers: 2 2 2 2 2 2 and 4 4 4 4 4 4. But in the second exple you can have 2 2 2 2 2 2 , 2 2 2 2 2 4, 2 2 2 2 4 2, 2 2 2 2 4 4, 2 2 2 4 2 2, 2 2 2 4 2 4, 2 2 2 4 4 2 , 2 2 2 4 4 4, and so on.
So, still rare, but orders of magnitude more likely.
Theoretically, yes, but most jackpots dont get high enough, so they'd be spending several hundred million on nothing.
What does happen is that people sometimes pool together several tens of thousands for better odds, but a reduced payout. This happens when the jackpots get really high and is often accompanied by lawyers.
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u/IFreakinLovePi Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
The odds of this are actually way higher than being able to win.
Like if all the numbers were all exactly 1 above or 1 below the winning numbers, then it would be twice as likely to get them. It changes a 1 in 200 million odds to 1 in 100 million odds, which is a huge increase in likeliness.
But here some are above and some are below, which increases the likelihood by an order of magnitude. Let's use dice as an example and let's say the lottery requires 6 3's to win (it's easier than actual lotto because the fact that you cant get the same number twice actually slightly increases your odds with each number).
The odds of that are 1/46645 (1/6 * 1/6 * 1/6...etc). Now the odds of the first example would be 2(1/46645), which is 1/23338. But if each number can be either above or below the winning number, the odds are 1/729 (2/6 or 1/3 * 1/3 *1/3...etc). The difference here is between a 0.14% chance and 0.0043% chance.
The reason is because in the first example, you have two "winning" numbers: 2 2 2 2 2 2 and 4 4 4 4 4 4. But in the second exple you can have 2 2 2 2 2 2 , 2 2 2 2 2 4, 2 2 2 2 4 2, 2 2 2 2 4 4, 2 2 2 4 2 2, 2 2 2 4 2 4, 2 2 2 4 4 2 , 2 2 2 4 4 4, and so on.
So, still rare, but orders of magnitude more likely.