\frac{42!}{(42-6)!6!} or 4241403938*37/6/5/4/3/2=5,245,786.
So your odds are 1 in 5 million.
As with the government lotteries in the US, you should expect to get back less than half of what you put in (unless you believe in luck).
Soory, my math is sh1te. What does that * mean?
Bri
Your “expectation” (a mathmatical term ) is about 50% if there was no jackpot (the government and the sellers keeps the rest). That is how much you might win if you bought every combination and were the only winner.
Jackpots increase the expection.
Some group tried it in Australia - but they had to share the prize and got about their original investment back. The government then moved to block any further similar stunts. You can buy up to 20 numbers there - equal to a heap of 6 number choices. I was in a syndicate with 19 numbers - and not one came out - there should be a special prize for something like that.
In the casinos in OZ they have a game called Kino - you get a small prize if none of your numbers come up.
first of all, the lottery is pretty innovative. it gets people to demand receipts and gets businesses to report sales and pay taxes. there are a LOT of countries out there where getting an accurate count of goods and services processed is a big deal.
as for the odds. let’s just take the california lottery as an example. the really BIG jackpots(over $100 million) don’t occur until no winner has popped up over several drawings. since millions of tickets have already been bought which did not win(from previous drawings), the odds aren’t really that much better for the next drawing, but the percieved value of a ticket(jackpot x odds) is better. does that make any sense?