The futility of the lottery demonstrated with PowerShell

I wrote this a long time ago.  While we often hear how the odds are stacked against those who play lottery, this script will make you get a real feel for it.  When you run this you'll select your Powerball numbers and watch as your (not real) money flies out the window with live winnings/losses/#picks/etc.  I've let this run for hundreds of thousands of simulated picks and have never gotten more than the $100 prize.

001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061

$PlayPowerBall = { Function Get-Five(){ $Result = @()  While($Result.count -ne 5){     for($i=0;$i -le 5; $i++){         $Result += (Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 59)     }     $Result = $Result | select -Unique -First 5 | sort} $Result} $Winnings = 0 cls $WinningsTable = @() $Numbers = @() for($i=0;$i -le 4;$i++){$NumTest = 0     while([int]$NumTest -gt [int]59 -or [int]$NumTest -lt [int]1 -or $Numbers -contains $NumTest){     $NumTest = Read-Host "Please enter lottery number $($i+1) from 1 to 59"     if([int]$NumTest -gt [int]59 -or [int]$NumTest -lt [int]0){Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black "Invalid input. Enter a number between 1 and 59!"}     if($Numbers -contains $NumTest){Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black "Invalid input. No duplicate values allowed!"}     } $Numbers += $NumTest } $Numbers = $Numbers | sort{[int]$_} $PB = 0 While([int]$PB -lt [int]1 -or [int]$PB -gt [int]35){ $PB = Read-Host "Please enter the powerball number from 1 to 35" if([int]$PB -lt [int]1 -or [int]$PB -gt [int]35){ Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black "Invalid input. Enter a number between 1 and 35!"} } $timer = [System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch]::StartNew() $tries  = 0 $loop = $false $ConsoleCounter = 0 while($loop -eq $false){ $Result = Get-Five     $PBResult = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 35 [psobject]$row = "" | select WinValue, PickCount, Matches, TimeElapsed     switch("$((Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result).count),$($PB -eq $PBResult)"){                "10,True" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 4;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize;$Winnings = $Winnings + 4}         "8,True" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 4;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 4}         "6,True" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 7;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 7}         "4,False" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 7;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 7}         "4,True" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 100;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 100}         "2,False" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 100;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 100}         "0,False" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 1000000;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 1000000}         "0,True" {$WinningsTable += $row;$row.PickCount = $tries;$row.TimeElapsed = $timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds;$row.WinValue = 160000000;Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $Numbers -DifferenceObject $Result -IncludeEqual -ExcludeDifferent | %{$row.Matches += "$($_.inputobject),"} ;$row | ft -AutoSize; $Winnings = $Winnings + 160000000}         }            $tries++  Write-Progress -Activity "Running picks against your numbers..." -CurrentOperation "Picks-> $tries Your Numbers: $($Numbers[0])-$($Numbers[1])-$($Numbers[2])-$($Numbers[3])-$($Numbers[4])---$PB) Winnings=`$$Winnings Losses=`$$($tries*2))"     } $timer.stop() } .$PlayPowerBall