TITLE: Odds of winning a contest
QUESTION [1 upvotes]: In a random drawing with 50 entries are the odds of winning better if I:
A.  Enter 1 contest 3 times
or 
B.  Enter 3 contests 1 time

REPLY [3 votes]: In the first case, you have three entries out of 50, so your chance of winning assuming all drawings have equal chance of being picked is $$\frac{3}{50}=0.06.$$
If you enter 3 contests 1 time, and I assume each contest is the same, then your chance of winning at least one of them is the complement to losing all of them. This probability is given by
$$
1-\left(\frac{49}{50}\right)^3=\frac{7351}{125000}\approx 0.058808.
$$
So it seems you have a slightly better chance of winning at least once if put all three of your bets in one contest.
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