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Re:A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math by aposteriori on Friday February 13, 2009 @09:51PM (#480775)
Let's not forget that it's only the expected return, i.e., the return as the number of trials goes to infinity. But, you don't have infinite money to spend, so there's a good chance you'll go broke before you win (depending on the variance). Another way of looking at it, it's a random walk with a bottom barrier --- once it hits zero, you're out of the game.
Re:A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math by gravitycop on Saturday February 14, 2009 @08:39AM (#481109)
you don't have infinite money to spend, so there's a good chance you'll go broke before you win

I.e. risk-of-ruin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruin_theory

Re:A Lottery for People Who Are Good at Math by aposteriori on Sunday February 15, 2009 @06:19AM (#481909)
Thanks, wasn't aware of this name.