mikejharrison

Heart Radio in the UK are running a competition whereby they give you an opportunity to take an amount of money now (minimum £500, but so far has ranged from £2,000 to £7,000) or forfeit the money to accept entry into a £1,000,000 draw to be held in the first week of May (7th). One person will win the full amount.

They randomly select an entrant every weekday morning, and it costs each entrant £2 to enter. The number of rounds played each day is flexible upto a maximum of 8 rounds.

The more people that forfeit the money and enter the £1MM draw, the less the odds of taking the pot (to date 7 people are in the draw). A total of 9 people will be selected from this group, 1 more round will be played, bringing the total to 10, and then 1 lucky winner will be selected.

Each morning on the drive in to work I've been thinking about the odds, and a logical way to play for someone with low, medium, and high net worth. The more I think about the problem, the more complicated it becomes.

Today, you can win £7,000 now, or forfeit for the chance of £1MM. I don't like the jackpot odds, so I'd be inclined to take the money today. But I'm interested in the thought process of the rest of HN.