by jamespetercook on 8/16/23, 1:06 PM with 59 comments
by forinti on 8/16/23, 1:47 PM
"... they matched just two balls on three of the tickets, the reward being three lucky dip tries on a subsequent lottery, each of which came to nothing. Since a ticket costs £2, the experiment represented a loss to the authors of £54.
This unfortunate incident therefore serves both as a verification of our result and of the principle that one should expect to lose money when gambling."
by watson on 8/16/23, 1:40 PM
by thebruce87m on 8/16/23, 1:45 PM
Matching two numbers on the last draw was rewarded with a £5 prize and a free lucky dip, but I think the £5 was only because it had rolled-over too many times.
by keepamovin on 8/16/23, 3:23 PM
1: Hi there! Sorry to bother you but I think I have a winning ticket for the Powerbrits Billions Megapounds but I seem to have received an error at the cashier while checking my ticket...
2: Hi, me again! Yes, in response, I made sure the ticket was for the correct lottery. And yes, the cashier was listening to me when I asked them to check it...
3: Hello, hope you're well! I'm working on getting you that cashier screenshot as well as a picture of my ticket. Just wanted to reiterate I'm sure it's a winner, and there seems to be a bug in the code...
4: Hi there! Sorry I can't take a 'clearer picture with the ticket actually visible and readable' because that's the bug in the ticket I'm telling you about! Yes, again I'm sure it was a winner, I picked the numbers myself! And now I would not like a complimentary replacement ticket for the next drawing, thank you very much! Please don't close this support ticket as completed, too, alright? What I'd like is ...
[[ 21 support tickets later ]]
24: Hi friend! Yes, I'm quite sure the numbers on my ticket are 6-9-11-15-17-21, the exact numbers of the winning draw I'm hoping you'll help me collect! You can see from my recent photo that the 1 is clearly visible in a number of places and if you turn it to the left, you'll see what looks like a 5 and 7 as well. Clearly the rest of the positions have some bug where the numbers become unclear and appear to temporarily represent other numbers, but I didn't write them unclearly in the original (sorry I misplaced that!), so it is clearly a bug in your software! You know what, friend? F--- this, I have been nothing but reasonable. I think I might have to go to Hacker News and tell everybody about the terrible things that have happened as a result of this atrocious run around you've been giving me!
[[ 2 support tickets later ]]
27: Oh, hi, Senior Support Analyst Manager Derrick, thank you so much for your warm and accommodating email! Why, yes, that would be delightful, I will gladly accept monthly part-payments, less taxes, deposited into my standard Bank of Ireland (Maldives) account. Terribly good of you, if I say so myself! You have a fantastic day, Derrick! I'll be sure to fill out that little "Support Questionnaire" you sent me in your last correspondence, too (probably from St Tropez idk). Fantastic stuff!
by sircastor on 8/16/23, 3:28 PM
It’s a trap for people who are desperate, trying to survive and a band-aid for a budget shortfall because people don’t want to pay taxes otherwise.
by FaisalAbid on 8/16/23, 2:42 PM
by column on 8/16/23, 1:48 PM
by gadders on 8/16/23, 2:07 PM
Or is there no difference in terms of likelihood of getting a significant win?
by greenpizza13 on 8/16/23, 2:34 PM
by duffyjp on 8/16/23, 2:28 PM
by sys_64738 on 8/16/23, 2:09 PM
by osullip on 8/16/23, 1:53 PM