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Comment by brudgers | Hacker News Reader

You might win a billion USD in a single lottery draw.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/lottery-jackpot-record-power...

I think only the top one of those was actually a billion. Sum of payments is poor financial math, and I really wish news agencies would grow some standards and not use them in the headlines.

The lottery commissions are major purchasers of advertising so don't expect the media companies to bite that hand any time soon.

Yes, you can. Not sure how that's relevant to the discussion though.

it's a typical HN Gotcha of which I myself am often guilty, given hundreds of different chances, and one of those chances can make you a billionaire, then you can become a billionaire by betting on hundreds of different chances - but of course horse race gambling doesn't give you that billion in one shot chance.

on edit - well I guess it technically does it give it, but at such a high rate of investment it isn't really that worthwhile either. The point about the lottery is that a single ticket which costs little can return a billion. A horse race that returned a billion probably needs at least a 100 million to be bet, which is probably not even possible.

Do you think the probability of a working system are lower than the probability of laundering money at the racetrack?

If you start with two billion, it’s relatively easy to walk away from the track with one.

it sounds to me like you think I've said something about the likelihood of a working system, and also that you think I am somehow in opposition to your second sentence, and require setting straight on the matter?

I admit I am at a loss how either of these suppositions could actually come to be, based on what I wrote, so I suppose I am mistaken.

You mentioned getting real money to make a system work.

I pointed out an ordinary mechanism by which a person could find capital.

A winning system could offer better rates to customers of a money laundering service.

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