BobP,
this C(6,18,4,6)=48 is a nice wheel for the purpose it is designed for. However it is unfair to compare it with the WR or an optimized one which has only 42 lines.
As for the jackpot, everyone wants to hit the jackpot and every wheel has a chance on that, no matter how it is constructed or its guarantee. Even in your 48 ticket wheel, the 3+3 matter for hitting the jackpot is not that important. These are the lines of your wheel that you can setup in the 3+3 manner to hit the jackpot (groups 1-3,4-6,7-9,10-12,13-5,16-18),
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 7 8 9
1 2 3 10 11 12
1 2 3 13 14 15
1 2 3 16 17 18
4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 10 11 12
4 5 6 13 14 15
4 5 6 16 17 18
7 8 9 10 11 12
7 8 9 13 14 15
7 8 9 16 17 18
10 11 12 13 14 15
10 11 12 16 17 18
13 14 15 16 17 18
15 lines in total. You lose control of the remaining 33 lines. Now, if you are lucky and have all six numbers in any two of these groups, then you have the jackpot.
The C(6,42,4,6)=42 wheel is
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 7 8 9
1 2 3 10 11 12
1 2 3 13 14 15
1 2 3 16 17 18
1 4 7 10 13 16
1 4 8 11 14 17
1 4 9 12 15 18
1 5 7 11 14 18
1 5 8 12 15 16
1 5 9 10 13 17
1 6 7 12 15 17
1 6 8 10 13 18
1 6 9 11 14 16
2 4 7 12 13 18
2 4 8 10 14 16
2 4 9 11 15 17
2 5 7 10 14 17
2 5 8 11 15 18
2 5 9 12 13 16
2 6 7 11 15 16
2 6 8 12 13 17
2 6 9 10 14 18
3 4 7 11 13 17
3 4 8 12 14 18
3 4 9 10 15 16
3 5 7 12 14 16
3 5 8 10 15 17
3 5 9 11 13 18
3 6 7 10 15 18
3 6 8 11 13 16
3 6 9 12 14 17
4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 10 11 12
4 5 6 13 14 15
4 5 6 16 17 18
7 8 9 10 11 12
7 8 9 13 14 15
7 8 9 16 17 18
10 11 12 13 14 15
10 11 12 16 17 18
13 14 15 16 17 18
Same as above, the 3+3 setup can work on the following lines.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 7 8 9
1 2 3 10 11 12
1 2 3 13 14 15
1 2 3 16 17 18
4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 10 11 12
4 5 6 13 14 15
4 5 6 16 17 18
7 8 9 10 11 12
7 8 9 13 14 15
7 8 9 16 17 18
10 11 12 13 14 15
10 11 12 16 17 18
13 14 15 16 17 18
We have 15 lines to do the same 3+3 trick here. We lose control of the 27 remaining lines only.
Still, nobody says that we can have all our winning numbers in any two groups. This simply means, even the ticket 2 6 9 10 14 18 has equal chance to be the jackpot ticket. The only draw back of the WR wheel above is that is does offer only 93.28% chance for 3if3 (I haven't tried to optimise it yet).
In terms of the jackpot, your wheel has 48/C(49,6)=0.000343% whilst the WR wheel has 42/C(49,6)=0.0003% chances to hit.
In case all 6 numbers are among the 18, then
WR=0.2262%
48 ticket wheel=0.2585%
No big difference whichever wheel we use, don't you think?
In either case, the jackpot is not something that should bother you. If it comes, you are lucky but it is not the crucial part of choosing an abbreviated wheel to play. This is what I'm saying all the time. Your wheel simply offers a better 'phenomenal' way to hit the jackpot IN CASE all 6 winning numbers fall within 2 groups only, as it does the WR wheel too.
Your increase of cost is 48/42=1.1428 or we have a free WR wheel play for every 7 plays of your 48 ticket wheel (8 plays for WR wheel at the cost of 7).
If 3 numbers match among 18, then WR record wheel offers
6 5 4 3 % Total Acc %
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - 54 6.61765 6.61765
- - - 1 729 89.33824 95.95588
- - - 3 27 3.30882 99.26471
- - - 5 6 0.73529 100.00000
48 ticket wheel offers
6 5 4 3 % Total Acc %
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - 1 720 88.23529 88.23529
- - - 2 72 8.82353 97.05882
- - - 3 12 1.47059 98.52941
- - - 5 12 1.47059 100.00000
Besides the 100% 3if3 guarantee the 48 ticket wheel offers, as you can see, the 6.62% loss of the WR wheel is easily covered by the free play we have. There is a slight increase of odds for more 3 hits but this is due to the increase of tickets and also it does a bit better in case of 4 or 5 out of 18 match as expected.
I'm not trying to lower the quality of this 48 ticket wheel for sure. I just cannot see a good reason to go for the 48 ticket wheel when the 3if3 wins cannot cover the costs on both wheels, the 3+3 trick is controlled totally by luck (and can be done on both wheels) and the jackpot chances are almost the same on both wheels.