999 to 1

Talk about dumb luck.

I rarely play the Lottery. In fact, it's probably been several years since I've bought any kind of ticket. But, with all the talk about big jackpots lately, I was considering buying one or two.

Yesterday afternoon, as David and I were leaving the grocery store, we walked by the Lottery machine, and I decided to give it a go. I only wanted to play one dollar, because, you know, why waste your money? I was all set to play Super Lotto Plus or Mega Millions, but then I thought, "Why not play something that I at least have a shot at winning?" So, I went with the Daily Three.

The Daily Three is pretty simple. You pick three digits (each from 0 through 9) and if they match the three digits drawn on TV, you win. You can bet that the digits will come up in the exact order you pick (a straight bet) or that they will come up in any order (a box bet). I opted for the straight bet, and I had the machine pick my numbers for me: 0-2-3

So, I printed out the ticket, we went home, and I forgot about it for the rest of the day.

This morning, I saw the ticket lying out on the kitchen counter. I snapped it up so I could check my numbers when I got to work.

A quick check of the Lottery Web site: Winning Numbers->Daily Three->Evening Draw:


Unbelievable.

The odds of hitting a straight bet are 999 to 1 against. With math like that I should have won $1,000, but of course the Lottery keeps 50% of the money wagered (a huge house advantage), so the payoff was more likely to be around $500. In actuality, the prize pool is split evenly amongst all other winning straight-bet tickets, and as it turned out, there were slightly more winning straight-bet tickets than average for this drawing, so I ended up winning $420.

Stupid, dumb luck. Kids, stay in school.