If the lottery costs $1 per ticket, what is the expected net cash if you buy one ticket? Please remember to factor in the cost of playing. Round to the nearest cent. Expected Net Cash

Question

A lottery with various prizes is shown in the table below. The probability of winning each prize is included.

Prize	Probability
$1,000,000	.0000000148
$2,000	.000816
$500	.0025
$10	.049
$0	.94768

If the lottery costs $1 per ticket, what is the expected net cash if you buy one ticket? Please remember to factor in the cost of playing. Round to the nearest cent.

Answer 1

This is a Statistics question, and the answer is found by multiplying each possible outcome by its probability and summing them up. Then subtract $1 for the cost of playing.

(0 * .94768) + (10 * .049) + (500 * .0025) + (2000 * .000816) + (1000000 * .0000000148) - 1 = $2.39

Looks like the $500 and $2000 prizes are costing the lottery organizers the most money.