WABI interviews Pitt about odds and strategy of winning Mega Millions

WABI-TV (Channel 5 in Bangor) interviewed Nigel Pitt, University of Maine mathematics professor and mathematics and statistics department chair, about the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot. “For winning everything, all five numbers up to 70 and the golden one, you’ve one chance in 302,575,350. So, it’s slim indeed … If you pick something that’s like a birthday, then it increases the chance that somebody else with the same birthday is going to pick the same number. So you can argue that there’s a slight advantage to picking something that’s recognizably a birthday or anything that’s of personal significance to you,” Pitt said.