To play the “Virtual Lottery”, enter 6 numbers (from 1 to 50) in the 6 boxes at the top of this page. Then scroll down and click the “PLAY” button. Each “play” will display 10 rows of computer-generated numbers. To the far right of each of the 10 rows is the number of matches you have with that computer number.

NOTE: When you have clicked the PLAY button once, you can then keep pressing the ENTER key or just hold it down and watch your money decrease.

After each click of the PLAY button, you have the option of changing the numbers you want to play. However, the amount won or lost will NOT reset because this is meant to simulate real life. (Hey, you can’t go to your local lottery agent and say, “Gee, I lost $10 on these numbers. I want my money back.”)

NOTE: This “game” is NOT meant to promote or condone gambling. Rather it is intended to be instructional by:
1) Demonstrating probability distributions
2) Compressing time so that a ‘lifetime’ of lottery playing can be simulated and
3) Demonstrating that the odds are always “with the house”. Let’s face it. Do you really think lotteries were created to make you rich?

Matching 3 out of 6 computer numbers wins $10 Virtual Dollars.
4 out of 6 = 125 Virtual Dollars
5 out of 6 = 5,000 Virtual Dollars
6 out of 6 = 2,000,000 Virtual Dollars

Suppose our fictitious lottery takes place twice a week and you play One Virtual Dollar per play. Each press of the ‘PLAY’ button costs 10 Virtual Dollars and would represent 5 weeks of play. Pressing the PLAY button 520 times will cost 5,200 Virtual Dollars and is roughly equivalent to playing this lottery for 50 years !!!

This simulator will teach a few valuable ‘lessons’.

1) Only in the very rarest of cases will anyone come out “ahead” by playing any lottery. (Almost always, it will be a big jackpot winner).

2) There are NO “winning systems” for playing a lottery. You can experiment by observing supposed “patterns” or searching for “hot” numbers but does this work ? (Take it from us, it won’t and never will).

3) The return on the money wagered is rather poor isn’t it ? (We think that most times you won’t earn back even 50% of your money).

There are 15,890,700 ways to choose 6 numbers out of 50. What are the odds of your 6 numbers matching the 6 chosen by the lottery?

                  O D D S       PROBABILITY
6 out of 6     1 in 15,890,700   .000000063
5 out of 6     1 in 60,192.045   .000016613
4 out of 6     1 in 1,119.85     .000892975
3 out of 6     1 in 59.99207     .016688690
2 out of 6     1 in 7.803847     .128141932
1 out of 6     1 in 2.438702     .410054183
0 out of 6     1 in 2.251110     .444225365

The Virtual Lottery is based upon no lottery in particular but based on methods of how all states run their lotteries. Basically, about 50% goes back to the players and the other 50% per cent gets distributed to cities and towns with a portion of this 50% going toward the cost of running the lottery. At first you would think that when playing this lottery, you will get back 50 cents for every dollar you play. Those aren’t very good odds but if you think about it, they are even worse. Yes 50% of the money gets paid out in prizes but about 20% of the prize money gets paid out in the top 2 prizes. Since the odds of your winning either of these prizes is ridiculously remote, you will actually receive about 30 cents for every dollar you play.

But don’t take our word for it. Play the Virtual Lottery for a “lifetime” (520 “clicks” = 5,200 Virtual Dollars = 50 years of playing) and you will probably end up winning 30 cents for every 1 dollar you bet.