Every lottery player knows the saying: "One line is no line, you have to play a few more to boost your chances!" That's why the average player often fills out a complete ticket with 8 lines.
Sounds like a solid strategy, right?
Wrong.
It’s actually the fastest way to systematically burn through your cash.
To prove it, we wrote a Python simulation that uses historical payout data and cold, hard combinatorics to see who actually has any money left in their account at the end.
What exactly is a Monte Carlo simulation?
Named after the famous casino in Monaco, the Monte Carlo simulation is basically the brute-force approach to probability theory.
Usually, mathematicians use a single, elegant formula to calculate the expected value.
That formula will dryly inform you: "You lose an average of 1 Euro per Eurojackpot line." That might be mathematically correct, but emotionally, it's a bit of a snooze.
It doesn't capture the true pain of slowly bleeding out financially.
The Monte Carlo simulation throws that elegant formula right out the window.
Its core concept is pure, raw computing power.
Instead of just calculating the theoretical outcome, we let the computer simply play through reality thousands of times.
It’s not an equation; it’s a simulation and iteration of real events.
The computer spawns 1,000 fictional players.
For every player and every draw over the last 10 years, it generates a random number based on the actual Eurojackpot probabilities.
It simulates the real-world winning and (mostly) losing, step by step.
At the end, we aren't looking at some abstract theoretical number, but at the very real, blood-red bank accounts of 1,000 ruined clones.
The Setup We're using Polars for lightning-fast data processing, NumPy to simulate millions of random draws, and Matplotlib to visualize our financial doom.
First, grab our historical Eurojackpot database and drop it into the same folder.
The Script Here is the complete Python code.
It calculates the exact mathematical odds on the fly using combinatorics (), links them up with the real average payouts from recent years, and then runs 1,000 players through the brute-force meat grinder.
The Result When you run the script, something visually striking happens.
Thanks to the scaling on the Y-axis, we get to see both: the brutal, steady losses of the general public and the absurd outliers of the extreme winners, all without breaking the chart.
The hard truth in numbers: At 8 lines per draw, you will burn through roughly €11,500 in 10 years.
The simulation shows it clearly: even if you hit 3 correct numbers now and then, it won't save you from the statistical expected value.
The red cloud inevitably drags every player into the negative.
Most of the time, not a single one of the 1,000 simulated players finishes the decade in the green.
Think you're that green outlier on the chart?
Test your own 8 lucky lines in our Eurojackpot Simulator and click your way into bankruptcy!