~*BitLotto*~ The bitcoin raffle/lottery newbie thread!

[bitlotto]

Moderator note: Bitlotto is AWOL - DO NOT PLAY!


Please read the opening post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34007.0
if you would like to enter the BitLotto draw.

This newbie thread was created in case anyone has questions about BitLotto or needs help with using the service. And for people who want to register in this forum solely for asking a question about BitLotto.

As I can't be online all the time, if anyone helps answer questions, or provides useful posts, I'll try to tip them every so often with BTC for their help. Spamming won't mean more BTC

GOOD LUCK everyone who enters!

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[David_Benz]

I have tried BitLotto a few times.  Great site!

[bitlotto]

I have tried BitLotto a few times.  Great site!

Thanks. It will be interesting if this draw is even bigger than the last one!

[David_Benz]

I have tried BitLotto a few times.  Great site!

Thanks. It will be interesting if this draw is even bigger than the last one!

Matter fact, I think I missed this month so far.  Gotta go buy a ticket.

[bitlotto]

We have added some lottery pools to the site.
One that groups 10 tickets together and another that takes any payment of 0.1 or above and groups them all together and splits the jackpot.

[bitlotto]

About 150 BTC is up for grabs now for June! Good luck everyone!
Every ticket 0.25. Every tickets has the same odds of winning!

[NEO2012]

hi bitlotto  im confused

why is the jackpot only 460?

when main address has a 466+ btc balance

the first pool has 20+ btc balance

second pool has  5+ btc  balance

my math says 466+20+5=491 -1%(5btc) for u 491-5(1%)= 486 btc
so then a grand total of

486btc for final prize lol

so wasup?

[bitlotto]

hi bitlotto  im confused

why is the jackpot only 460?

when main address has a 466+ btc balance

the first pool has 20+ btc balance

second pool has  5+ btc  balance

my math says 466+20+5=491 -1%(5btc) for u 491-5(1%)= 486 btc
so then a grand total of

486btc for final prize lol

so wasup?

There was one refund of: 25.2918117 a while ago.
http://blockchain.info/tx-index/6000369/614465b257ca62762017d66c9709abb381eb15a5dcfb2f31652efd0740ca9be8

[NEO2012]

hi bitlotto  im confused

why is the jackpot only 460?

when main address has a 466+ btc balance

the first pool has 20+ btc balance

second pool has  5+ btc  balance

my math says 466+20+5=491 -1%(5btc) for u 491-5(1%)= 486 btc
so then a grand total of

486btc for final prize lol

so wasup?

There was one refund of: 25.2918117 a while ago.
http://blockchain.info/tx-index/6000369/614465b257ca62762017d66c9709abb381eb15a5dcfb2f31652efd0740ca9be8

yes im well aware of the refund of 25btc u beeing a nice guy returning the money.
so the final balance is 466 minus fees 460 corect.

my question was about the funds from the 2 loterry pools u operate and had 2 diferent address then the main  address
witch have a balance of 20btc first pool
1P44CLoLcnUBgerSk2xoHeGh5SEZJ9Abfg

and the second pool 5btc
181GZPYNPKyaoWKeDgrHURU8QWQ4Wg7nP3

witch coincidence would have it adds  up to 25 again
witch have nothing to do with 25 u refunded from main address

so my question u get to keep the pool funds or why are they not added to main prize?
bringing it to 485??

[bitlotto]

hi bitlotto  im confused

why is the jackpot only 460?

when main address has a 466+ btc balance

the first pool has 20+ btc balance

second pool has  5+ btc  balance

my math says 466+20+5=491 -1%(5btc) for u 491-5(1%)= 486 btc
so then a grand total of

486btc for final prize lol

so wasup?

There was one refund of: 25.2918117 a while ago.
http://blockchain.info/tx-index/6000369/614465b257ca62762017d66c9709abb381eb15a5dcfb2f31652efd0740ca9be8

yes im well aware of the refund of 25btc u beeing a nice guy returning the money.
so the final balance is 466 minus fees 460 corect.

my question was about the funds from the 2 loterry pools u operate and had 2 diferent address then the main  address
witch have a balance of 20btc first pool
1P44CLoLcnUBgerSk2xoHeGh5SEZJ9Abfg

and the second pool 5btc
181GZPYNPKyaoWKeDgrHURU8QWQ4Wg7nP3

witch coincidence would have it adds  up to 25 again
witch have nothing to do with 25 u refunded from main address

so my question u get to keep the pool funds or why are they not added to main prize?
bringing it to 485??

All will be added together of course. I stated >460 BTC. But you are right it will be closer to 485.

[NEO2012]

final prize was 486 like i predicted haha


awsome game bitlotto

lets see if we hit 1000 btc this month

its ab0ut time

yeah i vote no more refunds for idiots btw

also since prize is now 500 and next month probaly 750 i vote for

implementing a second place prize

90 procent first prize

10 procent  second prize

very nice wont affect much the first one but there will be always at least 2 winers

cheers

[bitlotto]

final prize was 486 like i predicted haha


awsome game bitlotto

lets see if we hit 1000 btc this month

its ab0ut time

yeah i vote no more refunds for idiots btw

also since prize is now 500 and next month probaly 750 i vote for

implementing a second place prize

90 procent first prize

10 procent  second prize

very nice wont affect much the first one but there will be always at least 2 winers

cheers

Thanks. That's what I get for posting a quick number when I should be asleep!

I hope it's 750, but I'm not sure if it will be quite THAT high. Who knows.

I have to keep it 99% right now. If it did change, it would be for a draw in the future, and not one people have already paid for.

[NEO2012]

looks like recent price increase tempered anthusiasm for lotery for the moment

things shall be back soon:)

[bitlotto]

looks like recent price increase tempered anthusiasm for lotery for the moment

things shall be back soon:)

Probably. I'll have to think about changing the price per ticket one of these days...

[Dabs]

Some lottos have a prize structure like the following: (I made a scale according to your ticket price)
1. Jackpot (or 99%)
2. 20 (or maybe 10%)
3. 5 (or maybe 2%)
4. .25 (or the price of the ticket, or maybe slightly more)
These are based on getting all 6 numbers, just 5 numbers, 4 numbers, or 3 numbers on a 6 number draw.

Of course, in those lottos, the jackpot is not always won. Does BitLotto always have a winner every draw?

[bitlotto]

Some lottos have a prize structure like the following: (I made a scale according to your ticket price)
1. Jackpot (or 99%)
2. 20 (or maybe 10%)
3. 5 (or maybe 2%)
4. .25 (or the price of the ticket, or maybe slightly more)
These are based on getting all 6 numbers, just 5 numbers, 4 numbers, or 3 numbers on a 6 number draw.

Of course, in those lottos, the jackpot is not always won. Does BitLotto always have a winner every draw?

Every month there is a winner. I have thought about changing the payouts but it lowers the jackpot.

[Dabs]

Let me clarify:

1. The draw is every month? This is fixed? Assuming of course that your basis, the Mega Millions, happens on schedule?
2. Every month there is a winner? No matter how many or how few tickets were bought?
3. For a jackpot of about 270 bitcoins, there were about 1080 tickets sold or bought, so that is also the odds of winning? (or 99% of it.)

According to the website detailed explanation, there is always a winner because the first hash after sorting is the winner. So the winner is not based on what numbers you pick in the Mega Millions, but rather, each ticket is essentially a computer generated lucky pick, or quick pick, or you can't pick it, it just computes it based on your bitcoin address.

Basically, since no one has any real practical control on the bitcoin address they use (except to use one that has .25 BTC in it) and no one can predict the Mega Millions numbers, and all the hashing is done so no one really knows how it ends up being sorted, this is really a raffle or game of chance. Everyone that plays, is betting on the odds which is the number of tickets sold.

The difference between this and "normal" lottos is that there is a winner on every draw. In case there is no draw, (because Mega Millions didn't) then there is no winner? It simply gets moved to the next draw date. But that is going to be a rare thing, since there has always been a draw.

Has there been a day that Mega Millions didn't draw for any reason? (I am not aware of how Mega Millions works since I do not live in the United States, except what I can read from websites.)

Mega Millions is drawn twice a week, but BitLotto will only use one draw a month?

Thank you.

[bitlotto]

Let me clarify:

1. The draw is every month? This is fixed? Assuming of course that your basis, the Mega Millions, happens on schedule?

Yes. The draw always occurs every month at the same time.

2. Every month there is a winner? No matter how many or how few tickets were bought?

Yes. We use hashes and use the hash that sorts to the beginning. Everyone will have a different hash.

3. For a jackpot of about 270 bitcoins, there were about 1080 tickets sold or bought, so that is also the odds of winning? (or 99% of it.)

Yes, it's one out of however many tickets there are.

According to the website detailed explanation, there is always a winner because the first hash after sorting is the winner. So the winner is not based on what numbers you pick in the Mega Millions, but rather, each ticket is essentially a computer generated lucky pick, or quick pick, or you can't pick it, it just computes it based on your bitcoin address.

Exactly

Basically, since no one has any real practical control on the bitcoin address they use (except to use one that has .25 BTC in it) and no one can predict the Mega Millions numbers, and all the hashing is done so no one really knows how it ends up being sorted, this is really a raffle or game of chance. Everyone that plays, is betting on the odds which is the number of tickets sold.

The difference between this and "normal" lottos is that there is a winner on every draw. In case there is no draw, (because Mega Millions didn't) then there is no winner? It simply gets moved to the next draw date. But that is going to be a rare thing, since there has always been a draw.

Has there been a day that Mega Millions didn't draw for any reason? (I am not aware of how Mega Millions works since I do not live in the United States, except what I can read from websites.)

Mega Millions is drawn twice a week, but BitLotto will only use one draw a month?

Thank you.

They draw multiple times a week. I only use the one on Friday that occurs the first in the month. I am not aware of a draw that didn't occur. I guess an emergency could delay it I guess.

[Dabs]

Ok. Thank you for all the answers. I'd like to correct what I said, I think the hashes are based on the transactions not the bitcoin address, but that's not really important, just a detail.

Last question, and this is probably answered somewhere else but I can't or don't understand it. How does it work when I buy more than one ticket? Is it better to do separate transactions for every 0.25 BTC or can I buy 100 tickets for 25.0 BTC? It seems the process would be much simpler if I just made multiple transactions of .25 BTC each even if they all came from the same wallet. Or how does it work if I just use one transaction with 25.0 BTC ?

[bitlotto]

Ok. Thank you for all the answers. I'd like to correct what I said, I think the hashes are based on the transactions not the bitcoin address, but that's not really important, just a detail.

Last question, and this is probably answered somewhere else but I can't or don't understand it. How does it work when I buy more than one ticket? Is it better to do separate transactions for every 0.25 BTC or can I buy 100 tickets for 25.0 BTC? It seems the process would be much simpler if I just made multiple transactions of .25 BTC each even if they all came from the same wallet. Or how does it work if I just use one transaction with 25.0 BTC ?

For any BitLotto draw I allow any multiple of 0.25. If someone wanted to buy 100 tickets it would take a while. So what I do is use the tx hash plus a number for each multiple.

So if the tx hash was:
5193890da9faf6e8beb452b3c4ee511941c0135637cfd7bc036cb863f5c507ca
and it was for 1.00 BTC then the hashes for the rest would be:
5193890da9faf6e8beb452b3c4ee511941c0135637cfd7bc036cb863f5c507ca1
5193890da9faf6e8beb452b3c4ee511941c0135637cfd7bc036cb863f5c507ca2
5193890da9faf6e8beb452b3c4ee511941c0135637cfd7bc036cb863f5c507ca3

Once all tx's have a mixer added to it they will all be totally different and unique hashes.

It makes it way easier to buy a whole bunch of tickets if wanted.

See http://bitlotto.com/2012sep7.txt for example data.