http://www.illinoislottery.com/subsections...&Submit2=Submit

Wow.

Huh?

que?

I must be getting better at guessing. I saw the title and thought 4-2-0.

I get it, but is that TPIR fanboy drool-worthy? The "420"-heads could usually not give two craps about the show itself.

(I'm restraining myself from figuring out how often that number comes up in all of the Pick 3 games around the country, yes.)

It's a, um, joke.

I'm just waiting for Zach to contribute to this topic.

Zach will explain it.

He always does.

It'll make sense then.

What would we do without him?

Which would explain me getting it, Chris. I then questioned the strength of the joke's premise.

Best I can glean is that 420 is an occasional bid on TPIR, though not the best possible bid.

Wo...ah, screw it.

All of a sudden, a classic line from "You Can't Do That On Television" comes to mind:

Matt, don't encourage him. :)

Took him all of 15 minutes.

It's almost like someone shined a big "Z" in the night sky begging for his help, he then jumped right into the Zachcave (his parents basement), punched up his Zachdatabase (alt.tv.game-shows), and shined his worthy contribution for the rest of Gotham (the board) to see.

now back to your alterego lifestyle, you freak in pleather.

"Zachman, this is Commissioner Gordon. The Penguin has stolen the entire world's supply of TPIR minutiae. Can you help us?"

(And is that a utility belt or is he just happy to see you?)

Then I'll do the figuring for you. One in a thousand times. Each number has just as much a chance of coming out of the bin as anything else. If twenty states have lotteries, then it probably happens every two months or so.

"Wow" doesn't even cut it.

Y'know, I hate to suggest this, but I seriously think it's time to propose introducing or ending every humorous comment by saying it's a JOKE. It's sad Zach can't take a hint, but such is life.

He's trolling, folks, nothing more. We know he's not that clueless, and we know he can control this behavior if he wants to. And instead, he chose to post to attract negative attention to himself. So, trolling.

Statistical Anomaly of the Day: 4-2-0 was also the winning Evening Pick 3 number in Illinois only four days earlier. Stoners in Illinois partied extra hearty this week.

This is apparently my thread for being misunderstood. Of course it's a 1/1000 chance on any single Pick 3. What I wasn't going to worry about was how many state lotteries have a Pick 3, and how often they each play it.

Consider it a free lesson to everyone else, then. The little ping-pong balls do not have a memory. The number drawn today could come up again tomorrow. Or it might be another ten years. I presume that every state that has a lottery setup at all has a Pick 3 thing, since it's the closest thing to highway robbery. ($500 for hitting the number bang on gives the state a healthy 50% profit on that bet alone.)

I bet the lottery HQ people wish it was a pari-mutuel drawing, each of those stoners would end up with...$4.20, probably. ;)

While it's probably true that MOST states have one, I can at least tell you that California went several years between when they first instituted their Lotto game (which in turn was at least a couple years after the Lottery started in the first place...to start with it was just scratch-offs and The Big Spin) and when they started what they call Daily 3.

/big fan of the "tax on the stupid" theory

We didn't pick up "Pick 3" in Iowa until about 2002--and we just base our numbers off the Illinois drawings.

Prior to that, we had a game called "Rolldown", before that, "Daily Millions", and before that, just the "Iowa Lottery".

Anyone else remember "Lotto America"?

Remember hearing about it years ago......

It still exists.......

They just awarded $365 million dollars this week to eight meat packing workers....

Wasn't that PowerBall?

Indeed Lotto America and Powerball are one and the same.

(and I keep promising myself not to be Zach, but dammit!!)

How silly of me. :)

Was it? I thought Lotto America was a straight up "pick 5 numbers" game (with much smaller jackpots).

Wikipedia is your ten-second friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerball

Spending ten more seconds on Google will confirm it.

I did look at the link provided. The amazing thing is....I never looked at it before.

Great. In addition to being snarky, he can also be too hip for the room.

Isn't this supposed to be a MODERATED forum, where posts like these can be killed/locked without it having to go five pages already?

*sighs*

When it goes too far, Jeremy, the moderator(s) will lock it. This one hasn't gone nearly as far as some recent ones did, that the moderator(s), one of whom will tell you that he used to bash people on ATGS, DID have to lock.

Thank you for contributing nothing. Again.

Newsflash for you : He, and many others here, still bash you.

As happens more often than some (including yours truly) have admitted, Jeremy is right. This has gone too far, and now it's closed.

Earth to Zach: someone who knows that he does certain things that annoy people, has the ability to control that behavior, and deliberately chooses not to do so -- whether or not said behavior violates the ERs -- is not in a position to be lecturing anyone on what's appropriate and what's not.