Bigger problem is that there are 11.7 B one dollar bills in circulation [1]. Even having that $100k sorted you still only stand 1: 117000 chance of winning.
But there is no downside (besides the time cost of the one-dollar-bill operation). If you don't win, you just put the money back to the bank.
What is interesting is that you could theoretically deposit (part of) the money into your account and then withdraw somewhere else, so change the odds slightly.
That searching is quite expensive, considering the odds (only one chance per day). Besides, there was also significant additional downside, which became obvious in this case: The risk of having a pile of cash in your house which could be stolen
Back when this contest was running bank savings accounts paid enough interest that there was a real loss of having all your money withdrawn. I'm not sure what year this was, so I can't look up the interest rate, but a couple thousand lost per month isn't an unreasonable estimate.
> a couple thousand lost per month isn't an unreasonable estimate.
This was the mid-to-late 80's... it wasn't THAT long ago. The majority of people reading this were alive back then. Yes interest rates were higher in the 80s and 90s, but not as high as you are insinuating. At this time (from my memory) you could expect about 1% per year in interest. Maybe upwards of 2% annual interest if you had a very generous deal with a bank, but even that is unlikely.
At 1% a year, his $100,000 is generating ~$83 per month in interest.
Granted he could do other things with his money to appreciate it. Which would increase his time value of money. But the opportunity cost of checking/savings account interest was pretty small.
Granted the guy was stupid to begin with for even thinking he could win this contest and for putting $100k in cash in his house in case... I don't know, someone broke in or something... wait, that's what happened.
[1] https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/money-finance/how-...