Main content

Just how lucky are regular lottery winners?

How statistics were used to show how unlikely it is to win hundreds of times by chance.

Over the last decade a number of journalists in the US have been suspicious of the number of people who seem to have won multiple prizes on scratch cards and the lottery. This week we talk to a reporter and statistician who poured over data across a number of states to work out the chances of multiple wins. Are some people just very lucky? The maths suggest that is unlikely.

Presenter and Producer: Charlotte McDonald

(Image: A customer purchasing lottery tickets at a store in San Lorenzo, California. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Tue 5 Dec 201702:50GMT
BBC World Service except News Internet

More episodes

Previous

How Rich was Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy?

Next

Does Eating Chocolate Make Your Brain Younger?

See all episodes from More or Less

Broadcasts

  • Sun 3 Dec 201719:50GMT
    BBC World Service except News Internet
  • Mon 4 Dec 201713:50GMT
    BBC World Service except News Internet
  • Tue 5 Dec 201702:50GMT
    BBC World Service except News Internet

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

BBC Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast

  • More or Less

    Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life