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Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: sweepstakes odds
Message-ID: <1066@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Jan-86 23:04:08 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1066
Posted: Fri Jan 24 23:04:08 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jan-86 23:40:19 EST
References: <215@kodak.UUCP> <1043@lsuc.UUCP> <100134@cpsc53.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Distribution: net
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 18
Summary: Multiple mailings -> multiple entries?

> > > 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.

So, then, a person CAN have better than 1/427M chance of winning by
sending in ALL the entries.  If they think it's worth the postage.

Mark Brader