Raffle odds calculator.

Raffle Odds Calculator: how it works

Each ticket can win at most one prize and prizes are drawn without replacement. Chance of no win = product over the prizes of (tickets not yours - draws so far) / (tickets - draws so far). Expected prize value = your tickets x total prize value / tickets sold. A ticket price equal to total prizes / tickets sold would be break-even for the buyer.

Worked example. 500 tickets are sold at $5.00 and prizes are $500, $100 and $50 ($650 in total). Holding 10 tickets costs $50. Your chance of winning at least one prize is 5.89%, and each draw is 10/500 = 2.0% for you. Expected prize value is $13.00, so the expected net is -$37.00. The break-even ticket price is $1.30.

Raffle tickets are a donation first. A negative expected value is normal for charity raffles, because the point is the money raised. Under the US IRS Publication 526, amounts paid for raffle or lottery tickets cannot be deducted as a charitable contribution.