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Monday, January 24, 2011

The Average 18 Year Old Has 6,255 Chances to Win the Lottery

Have you ever wondered how many chances you have to win a major lottery in your lifetime?

We too have asked ourselves this question many times. So we consulted the U.S. World Factbook and found the average life expectancy of a U.S. resident is 78.4 years. Since a person must be 18 years old to legally purchase lottery tickets, we find that a person has about 60 years in which they can buy Powerball, Mega Millions, or other lottery tickets.

Since these major lotteries have drawings twice a week, there are 104 opportunities to win each year. Multiplying 104 times 60 years, we obtain 6,240. Because of leap years, a player gets another 15 drawings to play. Adding 6,240 and 15 together, we find that there are a total of 6,255 drawings that may be played

Thus, we conclude, that: The Average 18 Year Old Has 6,255 Chances to Win the Lottery

As you get older, the number of opportunities becomes smaller. You can check the table below to see how many drawing you may have left to play.


Age Drawings
18 6,255
20 6,047
25 5,526
30 5,005
35 4,483
40 3,962
45 3,441
50 2,920
55 2,398
60 1,877
65 1,356
70 835
75 313


Note: These are only averages. Unfortunately, some players may pass away before they reach 78 years old. Others who are more fortunate, can have many more years left to dream.

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Welcome

The purpose of this blog is to bring you a variety of articles focused on sharing Lottery Specific Topics that will better help you understand your chances of winning the large Mega Millions, Powerball, Lotto 649, Super 7, Euromillions, etc. jackpots.

We intend to post new articles on a Bimonthly (every 2 month) basis, but may add content more frequently. Examples of topics that we will address include: Do all combinations have an equal probability of winning?; Where does the money go?; What combinations occur most frequently and why? Should I take a lump sum payment or annuity?; and more.

Our blog is open to your comments. If you have a lottery related question that needs to be researched, please suggest it. If you know of interesting research sites that we should add, tell us. If you want to contribute an article, let us know. The only rules that we will impose are: (1) Keep it clean; and (2) Don't ask for lottery results (you can get that elsewhere). We hope you will enjoy reading our articles and participate in our growth. .... J.L.