Think you can win the lottery? Guess again.

lottery.py

#! /usr/bin/env python2
 
__author__ = "kbdkode"
 
# View the rules of Mega Millions at http://www.megamillions.com/how-to-play
 
# Look at their graphs to see how much money you could lose yet make yourself
# feel like your winning with small prizes
 
 
if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        from random import randint
         
        # using windows?
        from os import name as osname, system as term
        windows = osname == "nt"
         
        if windows:
            term("cls")
        else:
            term("clear")
         
        # money earned from tickets
        earned = 0
        # number of tickets bought
        tickets = 0
         
        raw_input("""
This program illustrates the loterry winnings of Mega Millions.
 
Every ten thousand lottery tickets you will be notified of your "progress" (your
money and amount of time spent).
 
Note the downward trajectory of the money with the occaisional spike. (At least
this is what happens more than 99% of the time.) Winning this lottery is about
as likely as getting stuck by lightning while being eaten by a shark.
 
Additionally, slightly fewer than 100,000 checks are made every second. This
means that if you don't win for about twenty seconds, you have invested
$2000000m and (assuming you only spend one second per ticket which isn't very
long - not to mention you have to wait to see if your numbers are picked) you
have wasted at least 2000000 seconds, 556 minutes, 23 days, .06 years. This
measures actual time spent playing the lottery (not including waiting for the
numbers at 11:00 p.m. at night two nights a week).
 
[Enter]
""")
        raw_input("""
This lottery system, unfortunately, is highly addictive, yet this program
illustrates how buying a lottery ticket very disproportionately affects the
lottery companies.
 
Even though they claim that millions of dollars goes to
education it is mostly to build the schools; consequently the initial funding is
withdrawn on account of the P-N-pool concept, coined by none other than
John Oliver, which explains how money in Congress (which would have been funding
the school construction but has now dissappeared) is like peeing in a pool:
the money (or pee in the pool) spread everywhere - wanted or no.
 
[Enter]
""")
        raw_input("""
If you want to quit (it takes a very long time to win) press ctrl+c.
 
Press [Enter] to continue.
""")
         
        if windows:
            term("cls")
        else:
            term("clear")
         
        while True:
            # increment tickets
            tickets += 1
            # if 5 numbers in set are true
             
            # the number of matches
            matches = 0
             
            # power ball matches
            powerMatch = False
             
            # the randomly generated lottery numbers
            lottoNums = bytearray(5)
            for i in xrange(5):
                num = randint(1, 76)
                while num in lottoNums:
                    num = randint(1, 76)
                lottoNums[i] = num
                         
            # the buyer's numbers
            buyerNums = bytearray(5)
            for i in xrange(5):
                num = randint(1, 76)
                while num in buyerNums:
                    num = randint(1, 76)
                buyerNums[i] = num
             
            for num in buyerNums:
                if num in lottoNums:
                    matches += 1
             
            # if power ball matches
            if randint(1, 16) == randint(1, 16):
                powerMatch = True
             
            if matches == 1:
                if powerMatch:
                    #print "\n\nYou \"won\" $2"
                    earned += 2
            elif matches == 2:
                if powerMatch:
                    #print "\n\nYou \"won\" $5"
                    earned += 5
            elif matches == 3:
                if powerMatch:
                    print "\n\nYou \"won\" $50"
                    earned += 50
                else:
                    #print "\n\nYou \"won\" $5"
                    earned += 5
            elif matches == 4:
                if powerMatch:
                    print "\n\nYou \"won\" $5000"
                    earned += 5000
                else:
                    #print "\n\nYou \"won\" $50"
                    earned += 50
            elif matches == 5:
                if powerMatch:
                    print "\n\nYou won the jackpot. Lets call it $100,000,000 (about average jackpot)\n(one in 258,890,850 chance)\n"
                    earned += 100000000
                    break
                else:
                    earned += 1000000
                    print "\n\nYou \"won\" $1,000,000"
            elif powerMatch:
                earned += 1
                #print "\n\nYou \"won\" $1"
             
            if tickets % 100000 == 0:
                print "\nmoney earned:   ${earned:,.2f}".format(earned = earned)
                print "money spent:    ${tickets}".format(tickets = tickets)
                print "current money:  ${money:,.2f}".format(money = earned - tickets)
         
         
        # If this point is reached, then the power ball and 5 numbers were
        # matched
         
        # You actually won! congrats; that's a feat. Either you were really
        # lucky or you waited a really long time
        print "\n\nmoney after:    ${:,.2f}".format(earned - tickets)
        print     "tickets bought:", tickets
        print   "\nAssuming you spent on average one minute per ticket..."
        print     "  minutes wasted:", tickets
        print     "  hours wasted:  ", tickets / 60.0
        print     "  days wasted:   ", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0
        print     "  years wasted:  ", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0 / 365.24
        print     "  decades wasted:", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0 / 3652.4
        print     "\n(That's actual days and years wasted not days or years on which you bought tickets)"
         
     
    except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit, EOFError):
        try:
            raw_input("""
 
 
Give up? It's too bad you didn't win! Although, that is the very nature of this
system, isn't it?
 
[Enter]
""")
        except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit, EOFError):
            print
         
        print "\n\nmoney after:    ${:,.2f}".format(earned - tickets)
        print     "tickets bought:", tickets
        print   "\nAssuming you spent on average one minute per ticket..."
        print     "  minutes wasted:", tickets
        print     "  hours wasted:  ", tickets / 60.0
        print     "  days wasted:   ", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0
        print     "  years wasted:  ", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0 / 365.24
        print     "  decades wasted:", tickets / 60.0 / 24.0 / 3652.4