My wife is driving me nuts. Help me!

[QIII]

A wife driving her husband nuts is a bit like gravity: a natural and universal law of nature.

If you want her to stop spending money, find something else she does that drives you nuts -- something that does not cost money -- and play that up as though it bothers you more.

By the laws of nature, she will be drawn inexorably to that activity and stop buying lottery tickets.

[mikodo]

Thanks.

We have some smart people here.

;p

[Copper Bezel]

Is it bad that despite the importance and profundity of the comments on communication, understanding people's motivations, and general relationship realities, I really just want to stress what Toz said about probability, and emphasize that the odds really are 320,000:1 instead of 12,800,000:1 with when purchasing 40 tickets instead of 1?

Also applies across multiple lotteries, incidentally. Buying one ticket per day or 365 once a year comes to roughly the same odds, despite being in different drawings, so long as the odds don't change substantially per draw.

Edit: Reading the following post, I realize I think I mean chances / probability, not odds, thus /, not :. Results are much the same, as montag dp notes.

[montag dp]

My wife likes to spend our money (my paycheck), in part on lottery tickets. In Canada we have two major lotteries, 6/49 and lotto 7. I am going by memory, from when I figured the odds to winning a long time ago, to be roughly as follows:

6/49 = 1/12,800,040

Lotto 7 = 1/60,000,040 (I don't remember this one as well, and could be significantly off, but it doesn't matter to my question).

Notice that I attached a 40 to the end of both of the odds.

My wife will spend up to $40.00 per lottery, thinking it significantly increases the odds of winning.

Question:

How can I make her understand that 1/12,800,000 odds of winning, instead of 1/12,800,040 odds or

1/60,000,000 odds of winning, instead of 1/60,000,040 odds

does not warrant spending $40.00, instead of just $1.00 each time?



Thanks.

Not sure I get your logic. Why wouldn't it be 40/12,800,040, for example?

Taking the thought process to an extreme, if there were originally 12,800,000 tickets sold, and your wife bought 12,800,000 additional tickets, would she not have a 50% chance of winning? That is, if one ticket is a winner.

[deadflowr]

Not sure I get your logic. Why wouldn't it be 40/12,800,040, for example?

Taking the thought process to an extreme, if there were originally 12,800,000 tickets sold, and your wife bought 12,800,000 additional tickets, would she not have a 50% chance of winning? That is, if one ticket is a winner.

Lotteries have nothing to do with number of tickets sold, but with the drawing number combinations.
Sometimes a lottery drawing will sell millions over the odds limit, but a large chunk or several large chunks contain the same 5 or 6 number combinations.

I will give the wife credit, 40 in 12000000 are better odds than 1 in 12000000.
But the odds are only better by what, something like ten-thousandth of a percent. (I'm not doing the math to figure it out.)

Sidenote: I remember hearing about someone buying like 50 tickets all with the same number.
Urban Legend probably, but quite possible in today's world.

[lisati]

Sidenote: I remember hearing about someone buying like 50 tickets all with the same number.
Urban Legend probably, but quite possible in today's world.

I can only see that of being benefit if the exact numbers come up AND others have purchased similarly numbered tickets. Otherwise it's a waste of money.

[montag dp]

Lotteries have nothing to do with number of tickets sold, but with the drawing number combinations.
Sometimes a lottery drawing will sell millions over the odds limit, but a large chunk or several large chunks contain the same 5 or 6 number combinations.

I will give the wife credit, 40 in 12000000 are better odds than 1 in 12000000.
But the odds are only better by what, something like ten-thousandth of a percent. (I'm not doing the math to figure it out.)

Sidenote: I remember hearing about someone buying like 50 tickets all with the same number.
Urban Legend probably, but quite possible in today's world.

Obviously I don't play the lottery enough to know how it works. That's okay, though.

So you're saying the tickets don't have to be unique? I didn't expect that.

[deadflowr]

Obviously I don't play the lottery enough to know how it works. That's okay, though.

So you're saying the tickets don't have to be unique? I didn't expect that.

Normally, you pick the numbers you want, or the machine randomly generates them for you.

Not sure how it works in Canada, but most place like having the possibility of multiple winners, as more winners means smaller pay outs, and actually, more tax collections.

Edit: Anyway, it doesn't help the businesses selling the tickets much if they're limited in the numbers they're able to sell.
They have every right to sell 50 tickets with the same numbers to a single customer, if that is what they and the customer want.
Every ticket generates more revenue.

[whatthefunk]

Show her that $40 per ticket adds up to a lot of money. If she spends $40 per week on lottery, thats $2,080 per year. I dont know how old you and your wife are, but say youre in your 40s and have, hopefully, a good 35 years of life left. $2,080 per year times 35 years is $72,800. By not buying lottery tickets, shes essentially won the lottery.

[HermanAB]

The odds are terrible, but if you don't play, you can't win.
-- Robert Heinlein