Unlike the lottery, which encourages more and more participants, if there is a fixed number of tickets available, odds improve with the more chances you buy.

It isn’t exponential improvement, but additive.

I know, it’s math and statistics, something we shouldn’t have to think about when we want to win a prize…but, we should. 

Granted, the odds of winning may be set as being relative to the value of the winnings…like the lottery, the more who enter, the bigger the prize, but the odds (usually) remain the same.  Thankfully, charitable fundraisers often have to cap the entries for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they can only print so many entries…especially compared to a lottery machine, which prints them on demand, and keeps printing them until they close out the option to buy any more. Plus, more than one person could have those same numbers, rather by choice or by random pick.

Charities probably don’t offer options to win the prize behind the closed door…they would only have the ability to have one player.

Incidentally, if the charity doesn’t sell all tickets, the odds improve, even if just slightly, but then the organization may not earn as much as they were hoping to raise. Which makes them a potential loser…Whatever the case, if you choose to risk your cost of entry, the odds are that you’d support them even if there wasn’t a prize to be won. 

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl