The One in Five Draw

THE ONE IN FIVE DRAW Four friends, Abe, Bill, Christopher and Dave decided to buy tickets for a lottery called 'The One-in-Five Game'. In the ad in the local newspaper they saw there was a 60% of making a profit in this game. In each draw only five tickets were entered. You could play 10, 25, 50 and 100 dollar games. Abe, Bill, Christopher and Dave decided to enter the 10 dollar game, because 'Hey, it's supposed to be fun!' (That was the smartest thing they had said so far.) First prize was $20, second $12, third $10.50, fourth $5, fifth place $0. So it was true after all! A 60% chance to make a profit! Here's what happened: Along with our four friends 8 more players entered different draws, all 25 times. Now you have to understand, at one draw a week this took about half a year. Every week on Tuesdays the men would come together, open their letters from the lottery office and compare winnings. (Well actually it was just an excuse to share a couple of beers, which that week's winners paid for, of course!) * Player 1 lost $13.50 while winning 14 out of 25 times = 56% * Player 2 lost $66 while winning 10 out of 25 times = 40% * Player 3 won $13 while winning 14 out of 25 times = 56% * Player 4 lost $31.50 while winning 14 out of 25 times = 56 % * Player 5 lost $16,50 while winning 16 out of 25 times = 64% * Player 6 lost $67 while winning 10 out of 25 times = 40% * Player 7 won $37 while winning 19 out of 25 times = 76% * Player 8 lost $1.50 while winning 16 out of 25 times = 64% * Abe won $12.50 while winning 19 out of 25 times = 76% * Bill lost $5 while winning 14 out of 25 games = 56% * Christopher 11 lost $40, winning 13 out of 25 games = 52% * Dave won $21 while winning 18 out of 25 games = 72% It worked out nicely. On average 59% of all games were won. So it's true you will win about 60% of the time. However, only 4 out of 12 players actually made a profit. That's only 33.33%! (That's still not too bad by the way, if you compare it to other lotteries...) In total $241 was lost and $83.50 was won. Abe's wife Helen shook her head and laughed out loud: "I can understand betting $10 to double your money, but to risk 10 bucks to win 2 dollars or 50 cents? Abe pulled his wife of 30 years close and said: "This time we have come up with a system!" Helen raised her right eyebrow. "Abraham Johnson, what kind of nonsense is that?" Enthusiastically Abe replied: "This time Bill, Christopher, Dave and I are going to enter the same draw. Hee, hee, we're going to clean some suckers out!" Now, having always been better at math than Abe and having seen that no serious money was lost; Helen made it happen that for the next 25 weeks she would buy the fifth ticket in any draw the four friends entered. Week after week Helen kept on winning until finally after 25 weeks she had won an amazing 21 times taking home a nice $52.50. The guys we're sure something 'fishy' was going on, but took their $115 loss cheerfully and divided it by four. To lose a little over a dollar every week is no big disaster after all. They all decided to do it for another 6 months and this time Helen was not so lucky. She lost $44 in total. "Well at least I still have a profit", she thought and went to see a movie. It had been fun playing, she had earned some money and she knew the organization donated part of the proceeds to charity. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- If you got curious about the game, go to: http://www.freewebs.com/one-in-five-chance/ and have a go. I will throw in an awesome ebook about getting rich. For the more adventurous gamblers amongst us, you can also play the $25, $50 and $100 games. In fact anyone who spends $1000 or more on this game I will personally give some sound advice (by email) on how to set up, run and/or improve your own business. You can hold me to this whether you win or lose! HAVE FUN! Mark Luyk