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From: rt@cpsc53.UUCP (Ron Thompson)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: sweepstakes odds
Message-ID: <100134@cpsc53.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Jan-86 22:28:03 EST
Article-I.D.: cpsc53.100134
Posted: Sun Jan 19 22:28:03 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Jan-86 07:28:33 EST
References: <215@kodak.UUCP> <1043@lsuc.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: ATT-IS CPSC, Atlanta, GA
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> > ... 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?
> 
I'm sure they must figure multiple mailings.  The Reader's Digest, for instance,
has sent me three solicitations each for different merchandise and yet all
for the same contest money on several occaisons.
-- 
  Ron Thompson		AT&T Information Systems	Customer Programming  
  (404) 982-4217        Atlanta, Georgia		Services Center	      
  ..{ihnp4,akgua}!cpsc53!rt             (Opinions expressed are mine alone.)