Selling app created with PureBasic

[marcoagpinto]

Hello!

I have coded an app to generate draws for the EuroMillions using statistical techniques and such.

I was developing it for my personal use, but it was too expensive to generate tons of combinations.

A friend on IRC told me to send him a copy of the app, and he suggested some improvements and told me to sell it on the Internet.

I contacted the supermarket where I work asking if they could sell it, but no reply.

How can I sell the app myself?

How to deal with VAT, social security, etc.?

Shall it be released as Shareware, or what shall I release it as?

What price is the indicated for such an app?

I have created a serial number feature in it that only registered users can access the full app features.

Thanks!

[BarryG]

Selling lottery apps is considered a scam because no program can make you win, nor increase your odds of winning. It's 100% luck which numbers come up, and no software can predict or help guess the result. You could even get sued or into legal trouble if people buy and never win.

[marcoagpinto]

Selling lottery apps is considered a scam because no program can make you win, nor increase your odds of winning. It's 100% luck which numbers come up, and no software can predict or help guess the result. You could even get sued or into legal trouble if people buy and never win.

But in the documentation I didn't write that it increases the chances of winning, I wrote that it removes invalid draws according to the settings of the techniques.

[BarryG]

I wrote that it removes invalid draws according to the settings of the techniques.

But past draws can never become "invalid" because they have zero influence on future draws. They remain valid for future draws, too.

[Bitblazer]

Just write that your software can potentially help maximising profits in case of winning.

[BarryG]

Just write that your software can potentially help maximising profits in case of winning.

That's still false/illegal advertising because it can't. A computer algorithm can't predict the outcome of real physical objects spinning or blowing around in a barrel. At best, Marco could advertise it as a "fun novelty way to pick your numbers with no guarantees of winning or increasing your odds".

[Bitblazer]

Just write that your software can potentially help maximising profits in case of winning.

That's still false/illegal advertising because it can't. A computer algorithm can't predict the outcome of real physical objects spinning or blowing around in a barrel. At best, Marco could advertise it as a "fun novelty way to pick your numbers with no guarantees of winning or increasing your odds".

Many people use numbers like birthdays or wedding dates. So a software can make sure to NOT use these "more common" numbers. The lotteries i know here, split the money among all the winners. A software could just suggest the least likely numbers, so if you actually win with those numbers, you share the money with less other players - ergo you win a larger amount compared to other numbers. A bit statistics and research can actuaally do that.

IMHO a software therefore could rightfully claim to maximise the resulting profit in case of a win. But that depends on the lottery and drawing.

[marcoagpinto]

Basically, two friends told me to write in the manual:


Is it okay now?

Thanks!

[BarryG]

A software could just suggest the least likely numbers

With the laws of probability, and especially in relation to lotteries, there's no such thing as "least likely numbers" to get drawn. Every single ball has an equal chance of being drawn as any other in any new draw, regardless of the history of all previous draws. Ball 1 may have been chosen once in 100 draws, and Ball 2 may have been chosen 99 times in 100; but that still does not mean that Ball 2 has better odds than Ball 1.

When you said "least likely numbers" with regard to birthdays etc, I think you meant "least popular numbers", because it's the human element picking those numbers (not the machine).

[BarryG]

Marco, the first sentence in the last paragraph is good ("Note that the app doesn't..."). I would also add at the very end something like:

"This app comes with no guarantee of winning any prize in any lottery. All use of this app is solely at your own risk and for novelty purposes only, and you will not hold the developer personally liable for losses of any kind due to its use."

You need to legally protect yourself because people may waste a LOT of money using this app to try to win.

[marcoagpinto]

Thank you, my friends, for the suggestions.

[AZJIO]

There will be people who are willing to pay for the sensations. The program will push people to ruin. The chances practically do not increase, the chance was 1/100000, it will become 1.01/1000000. The deception is that the chances remain the same insignificant, but the person does not understand this. He would understand if the employer said that from today the working day is shortened by 1 second, or the salary increases by 1 cent, he would just laugh, but with a chance he would not feel it.

[BarryG]

the chance was 1/100000, it will become 1.01/1000000

No, the chances of winning do not increase at all. Ever. The laws of probability prove this. People need to understand this.

The program will push people to ruin

I thought that but didn't want to say it before. Desperate people will spend their grocery money on the lottery by trusting the app to increase their odds, when it does no such thing. I don't recommend releasing an app that encourages people to spend their money.

[marcoagpinto]

I thought that but didn't want to say it before. Desperate people will spend their grocery money on the lottery by trusting the app to increase their odds, when it does no such thing. I don't recommend releasing an app that encourages people to spend their money.

I will add a text to the manual telling people to play moderately, more for fun.

[AZJIO]

No, the chances of winning do not increase at all

You said yourself that if a ball fell out, then there were fewer remaining balls. There were 10 balls with the number 5, now there are 9 of them. The probability that the ball 5 will fall out is 1/10 less than the rest. That is, you can come up with numbers with repeating balls, the probability of which is less than the rest. Theoretically, there is a pattern in this, but there are only 100 such numbers, and the number of possible options is many orders of magnitude higher, which is why I said that the error is so small that it is useless to count on it.

It is much more productive to play the cauldron when 10 people add money to one participant of the game for 1000, the next month to another, and after ten months each of the participants will receive a large amount and can buy something. When you invest in a lottery, you do not control how much the organizer will take for himself, and with an even distribution of winnings, people expect to receive their money, you will always receive a much smaller amount. The organizers want to make money for themselves.