Re: Do the math ...
Also remember that the tickets in play do not have a completely random distribution of numbers. If all the tickets were computer-selected random numbers, sure, but in reality some portion of the players (I don't know the stats on how many) will pick their "lucky" numbers. Expect 1-12 to be biased for higher occurrences due to corresponding to the month of a lucky date. Same goes for 1-31 for day of month.
So here's a way to game the system, 1:259 million odds (ticket combinations) in a $1 play with a > $259MM jackpot should have net expected value (granted, need to adjust for taxes, risk of split jackpots, etc). Just buy out every combination of numbers and collect the jackpot.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
