Challenge: Lottery Simulator

Question

Here is a little challenge: write a code in any language that simulates a lottery draw with 4 out of 49. Place a bet, run the simulator on the bet and count how many times you would have to play to win the first time. For 4 out of 49 the chance is 1:211876 (give or take). Considering a payout of $1000 for a win and a price per try of $10, was it worth it?
I tried 6 out 49. Took my Macbook Pro 5 min to simulate x) . Sololearn will likely give you a timeout.

My version (as Python beginner):
https://code.sololearn.com/cHsfH7tmtIU4/?ref=app#py
comments to improve the code above welcome

Answer 1

Just asking: I know you want a simulation of the real thing, but since you have the odds calculated (1:211876), would it be more practical to select a number within the range 1 to 211876, and then let the program pull a random integer value from the range and compare it to your selected value? With a few steps taken to calculate the odds, while it doesn't affect much, it might save a number of iterations.

Answer 2

The result would be very similar indeed. But I think you could theoretically take more than 211876 times to win one. Also I wanted to know the computing power for simulating ;).

Answer 3

I wrote this to prove to my mother that she should save her money. in my area we have a lottery she plays called lotto 47.. It draws 6 numbers between 1 and 47. It runs a few million times before matching all 6.

import random
nums=[]
run=True
lotto=[6,13,26,33,37,42]
count=0
win=False

while win==False:
while run:
x=random.randint(1,48)
if x in nums:
continue
else:
nums.append(x)
if len(nums)==6:
run=False
nums.sort()

count+=1
print("\n")
print(lotto)
print(nums)
if nums == lotto:
print ("Winner! It took {} tries".format(count))
win=True
nums=[]
run=True