In article ,
wrote:

The odds of winning any particular lottery are (approximately) the same.

The odds of winning a lottery sometime in your lifetime are much better if
you
play the lottery every day of your life (assuming a nice long life) than if
you
just play the lottery once.

Approximately? They are exactly the same.

I said "approximately" because not all lotteries are the same.



Of course your odds of having an engine failure with two engines is
double of what it would be with one, and quadruple with four.

all other variables held constant...


So the guy who buys 4 lottery tickets is4 times as likely to win
(actually, lose) his money than a guy who buys one.

After everybody loses today, however, when we stepup to the window
tomeorrow, our odds are exactly the same. The guy who bought 4
tickets yesterday is no better off than I am, who never played.

A source of much confusion is when people try to compare probabilities
of events with different pre-conditions.

--
Bob Noel
looking for a sig the lawyers will like