EXAMPLE 6 Winning the lottery twice

In 1986, Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey State lottery for the second time, adding $1.5 million to her previous $3.9 million jackpot. The New York Times (February 14, 1986) claimed that the odds of one person winning the big prize twice were about 1 in 17 trillion. Nonsense, said two statistics professors in a letter that appeared in the Times two weeks later. The chance that Evelyn Marie Adams would win twice in her lifetime is indeed tiny, but it is almost certain that someone among the millions of regular lottery players in the United States would win two jackpot prizes. The statisticians estimated even odds (a probability of one-half) of another double winner within seven years. Sure enough, Robert Humphries won his second Pennsylvania lottery jackpot ($6.8 million total) in May 1988. You might find it interesting to do an Internet search of “man wins state lottery two times” or “woman wins state lottery two times.” A recent double winner was a man who won the Florida State lottery for the second time on August 31, 2013.