re: Cashier at store told me one guy has spent $4000 on Powerball

Where you ran into trouble was back on the first page when using the odds terminology of "1 in" to describe the effect on probability of buying $4000 worth of tickets.

quote:

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Yours odds improve from 1 in 292,000,000 to 1 in 146,000.

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From the article I linked:

quote:

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In everyday conversation when numbers or values aren’t given, the two terms are synonymous . If an event has a high probability, then it has high odds for happening. The incorrect usage arises when a person ascribes a mathematical value to either the odds or probability they are discussing

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Thus the reason for all the down votes and the claim from someone that you don't understand how odds works.