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From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: sweepstakes odds
Message-ID: <1043@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 02:49:40 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1043
Posted: Sat Jan 18 02:49:40 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jan-86 03:46:05 EST
References: <215@kodak.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Distribution: net
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 13
Summary: How?

> ... The article was written by William P. Barrett of the DALLAS
> TIMES HERALD. The information comes from the disclosers New York requires.
> The current "Publishers Clearing House" $10 million contest has odds against
> winning that are 427,600,000 to 1 (that's right, I typed the correct
> number of zeros).

How exactly are these odds computed?  Extrapolating from data in the
1985 World Almanac, I get that there are just under 100,000,000 households
in the US and Canada.  So is it a 1/427M chance of a particular mailing
causing you to win, and they send an average of 4.27 mailings to each
household(!)?  Or do they actually "work" foreign countries as well?

Mark Brader