Question

Suppose that $1 lottery tickets have the following probabilities and values: 1 in 5 to win a free ticket (worth $1), 1 in 100 to win $5, 1 in 100,000 to win $1000, and 1 in 10 million to win $1 million. What is the expected value of a lottery ticket to the consumer

Answer 1

Answer:

$0.36

Explanation:

Expected value of the lottery ticket = (p1 x a1) + (p2 x a2) + (p3 x a3) + (p4 x a4)

p1 = probability of winning $1 = 1/5 = 0.2

a1 = $1

p2 =  probability of winning $5 = 1/100 = 0.01

a2 = $5

p3 =  probability of winning $1000 = 1/100,000 = 0.00001

a3 = $1000

p4 =  probability of winning $1 million = 1/10,000,000 = 0.0000001

a4 = $1 million

(0.2 x 1) + (0.01 x 5) + (0.00001 x 1000) + (1,000,000 x 0.00001) = $0.36