Couldn't you win the lottery by buying every combination of numbers?

Question

What if you buy Every single combination of numbers possible to win the lottery? Yes it would cost A lot of money but the prize would be bigger than what you spent on the tickets? I know there must be a rule that you can't do it, right?

Answer 1

In addition to the above math, you would also have to consider if you weren't the only winner!  Each winner would fractionally reduce your winnings.  A better method to win would be to play numbers that statistically came up often.

Answer 2

there's no rules at all I don't believe. if so you can give half the tickets to the trust worthy person and keep the other half of the numbers to yourself. To buy every combination would be a lot of money and you have to figured it out, Thats why its so hard to win. You would would've to spend about roughly couple of millions dollars or more to get every combination. Ever heard the saying, "takes money to make money."

Answer 3

Yes of course you could there are just three problems.

1) Even if the prize is larger than the cost there is no way to be sure more than one person does not win.

2) The cost is prohibitive to point where if someone had that much money they wouldn't be that interested in winning the lottery. All lotteries are different but where I live it would cost $28.8M to make every possible combination.

3) Time.  Even if I worked on it for 16 hours a day every day including weekends it would take me over 19 years (almost 20) to fill out that many scantron sheets. That is at a fast pace realistically it would take double that. I'd make more if I just got a job plus there is no guarantee that the lottery will even exist or be using the same forms in 20 years.

Answer 4

Who knows , never heard of them.

Answer 5

First of all, there's no way to buy that many combinations in a 4 day period of time.  Secondly, even if you did, and the pot was higher than the amount you spent, you'd still risk losing A LOT of money if multiple people win the lottery at the same time you do.  Plus all the taxes, etc.  If you have enough money to buy every lotto number, there's better way to make more money.

Answer 6

On all 3 digit numbers, you would spend $1000.  The prize for a 3 digit number is $500.

On all 4 digit numbers, you would spend $10000.  The prize

for a 4 digit number is $5000.

To cover all Powerball combinations, you would have to spend $120,000,000.    Forget it.

Answer 7

Gambling is bad you are going to lose all your money!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 8

I beleive theres no rules against it. However, most lottery games must be entered through a machine. And you would need as many tickets as there are odds. About a million or so to 1. The ammount of time it would take to enter in all these combinations, would take far too long. In my state, they have a quick pick option that does the numbers for you. But you would have to pick them manually so you dont get the same combonation of numbers multiple times. So you would also have to fill out each indavidual game slip.

Answer 9

no rule for the simple reason you would spend more than you would win.

Answer 10

I don't know. But could someone possibly think of all of the possible combinations.

Answer 11

Yes you would have a 100% chance of selecting the winning numbers if you did in fact buy one ticket for ever number combination possible.

The amount you would win on that one ticket would be less than the cost of all of the tickets you bought

Answer 12

Yes, you could win the lottery by purchasing every single combination.  The problem is the number of combinations and the amount of money it would take to do it.  The number of combinations depends on the lottery, but let's say there were 160 million combinations.  You would need $160 million....  If the lottery was at $50 million, you would lose money.  If the lottery was at $300 million, you would make money - but who has $160 million they could put into the lottery?

Something else to consider: the time it would take to purchase all the tickets.  To get every combination without duplicates, you can't get Quick Picks - you'd have to fill out the forms yourself (or with a team of people).  It would probably take years (or longer - you do the math).