[atroposDad]

I would be really curious to see the money side of this. I am not sure about Powerball, but with EuroJackpot, some of the smaller wins can cover the cost of the ticket (or even cover a holiday!).

It would be really interesting to watch the expected value play out over repeated plays!! I am imagining a running balance where you keep track of total spend versus total returns. Most of the time the balance steadily goes more negative, with occasional jumps back up when you hit a partial match, and very rare big spikes from a larger win.

Very cool project!

[SauntSolaire]

Should also include a running tally for the total net profit taken in by the government (after payouts) across all expected ticket sales. That way you can watch your number going negative while the government's balloons up into billions.

[rhplus]

This would show the big difference between the Euro and US lottery formats, where (typically) in Euro lotteries, the government takes taxes on the stake and so the jackpot is tax free, whereas in US the prize is taxed as income or windfall. This is one of the reasons why US lottery jackpots tend to be stated as much bigger than Euro ones despite having a larger purchaser pool.

[Waterluvian]

Love the idea. Could also allow the viewer to pick how often they buy tickets and keep track of how much time passes. I think this dimension would help give context to the losses number.

Might hide all this behind the current automatic view with a “play it yourself” toggle.

[anonu]

EV is always negative.

[fragmede]

The Selbees would disagree.