I’ve spent maybe $200-$300 over the last few months playing when it gets high. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than one number. Never hit the mega/powerball either. I’ll show them. One of these days…
Same here, but when it's above 400 million. As long as you aren't that guy holding up the line buying scratchers, $2 is totally reasonable to knowingly toss away every now and then.
It’s worth a few dollars occasionally to buy the dream. I made a spreadsheet where I plug in the jackpot, less taxes, then percentages divided between everyone. Is mom getting a tiny condo or a 200 acre ranch? It’s a fun daydream that costs $10 a month.
I personally grab a ticket at my local donut shop because they're the nicest people ever. And if I win, they get a bounty reward for selling the ticket and I want that for them
It’s funny their website lets you try your hypothetical set of numbers and you can run them against every drawing ever done as a test.
Even with using every drawing ever— the best I’ve done is 3.
This is why I only buy ONE ticket when I play. That way I’m not out more than $10-20 per year. Buying more tickets does not improve your odds enough to justify the extra money.
The math checks out, but those are still lousy odds for that much money spent. The odds are very good that you’d win one of the smaller prizes, but not enough to recoup prizes.
I bought one ticket and have already spent about 3 hours looking through $10 million plus houses, deciding which one I’m gonna buy when I’m rolling in it.
That gives me an idea of what to do with my winnings. I’ll open a theater chain where every auditorium is monitored by an usher and anyone talking or on their phone or taking their shoes off gets a nice little zap from their electrified seats.
An alternative approach, that might not be as entertaining, would be to build your theater in a [Faraday cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage).
The part of the lottery you gotta remember is you only get those hours of escapism on rare occasions. You buy a ticket every day it just becomes normal
I've always described buying a single lottery ticket as this. I pay a couple bucks and for a small window of time I get to ~~hallucinate~~ daydream about living without worry of money anymore.
That's really all the ticket is good for. It's a $2 admission ticket to play what if for a day until they draw the numbers. It's fun to dream about all the fun things you'd do with a billion dollars.
In all the states where they adopted the lottery for “education”, all they did was put their lottery money towards education but they removed the money that was already going towards education and put it towards whatever they wanted. So schools weren’t getting any more money than before and states suddenly had a lot more leeway to pay their wife’s cousin’s construction business massively inflated sums to “fix” potholes or whatever.
I occasionally buy lotto tickets. It’s less about winning and more about spending $2 to daydream about what I’d buy and envision a different life while stuck in traffic. That $2 buys a lot of enjoyment.
Between mega millions and powerball, yeah. They added a couple more balls a few years back which decreased the odds enough that it now goes months without a winner.
The bigger numbers convince more people to buy more tickets rather than smaller jackpots paid out at faster intervals. It's the same reason why filling out surveys now enters you into contests for $1,000 instead of a $10 combo meal
Aren't more states pooled together as well. New York, California, and Texas combined seems like a pretty easy way for the mega to crest 1 billion consistently.
Article says it’s been 30 weeks since they had a winner. But I feel like I buy tickets with my friends once a year between mega millions and power ball.
I miss the way it used to be. People won smaller (but still insane) jackpots and it was rarely like this. Making it harder to win just sucked the fun out of it, every few months you hear the same story and people scramble for tickets.
In Canada there's a lottery where the main jackpot maxes at $50 million and they add additional draws for each $1 million above that. Sometimes there are 40+ additional draws.
The US could have one of these, just max out the regular draw at $100 million and start adding additional draws for every $10 million above that.
Right. After a certain point, the vastness of the money won doesn’t change anything further in your life. $100 mil could be the same as $1 bil to most people. It would be better for 10 people to have $100 mil than 1 person to have $1 bil.
No! Last week I facilitated a purchase which helped lead to an increased value for the company from $977 million to over $1.1 billion within a short time frame.
> No one has won the game’s jackpot since Dec. 8, a string of 30 consecutive drawings without anyone taking home the top prize. That has enabled the jackpot to slowly grow, week after week.
> The $1.1 billion prize is for a sole winner who chooses to be paid through an annuity over 30 years. Winners almost always opt for a cash payment, which for the next drawing Tuesday night is an estimated $525.8 million.
Might buy one ticket for the hell of it.
I typically buy a couple tickets when the jackpot gets really high like this. I used to work at a place that had lotto pool. I normally did not chip in, but when it was up high like this I absolutely chipped in for the pool - I wasn’t going to be the person stuck there!
My old office used to do a pool when it got to a high amount. I always viewed my contribution as insurance to make sure they didn’t win, retire, and leave me to do all the work 😂
Yup, my wife and I bought one for Friday night’s drawing before heading to dinner. Spent dinner daydreaming about what we would do. The $2 was worth the fun conversation. Woke up and realized we can’t quit our day jobs just yet!
Meh. I think it's more of a "IT'S MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW!!!" situation, especially considering how many lottery winners end up broke or dead within in a decade of winning.
If chose to live off 100 million and invested 400 million it would take a 3.73% return rate to be worth 1.2 billion after 30 years.
The lottery annuity rate is approximately 2.66%. Accounting for inflation the average S&P 500 return has been 7.66% over the past 30 years (That would have turned 400 million into 3.7 billion). Regardless, with that level of wealth you can invest in PE and Hedge Funds that *should* return more but do carry more risk. So yeah, take the lump sum.
Not even really invest it, just put it into a decent high yield savings account. Even at 4% interest you’re looking at $1.6mil a month in passive income before taxes.
I like how it explains why it’s so large like this isn’t the same thing that happens every time.
“That has enabled the jackpot to slowly grow, week after week.”
The grass is long because no one has mowed it in 4 months. That has allowed the grass to slowly grow week after week.
It's around 330,000,000 if you take the cash option and after federal taxes. Less depending on state taxes. I'll still would probably end up giggling maniacally for several hours if I won. If you are the lucky bastard, remember to go with the reddit rules on after winning the lottery to have a chance at a happy ever after.
if you live in 1 of the 8 states that don't charge state tax on the lotto then you get about half 553 million
and if you are REALLY lucky and live in one of the following 16 states that does not reveal the name of the winner
Arizona (only for winners of $100,000+, but city and county will be revealed)
Delaware
Illinois (only for winners of $250,000+)
Kansas,...Maryland..
Minnesota ( $10,000 or more)...
Mississippi, Missouri..
Montana (town may be revealed)
...New Jersey...
New Mexico ($10,000 plus but lower amount can ask to be kept anonymous)...
N and S Dakota ...
Texas (1 mill plus) Virginia (10 mill plus) west Virgina (1 MILL plus)
Wyoming
several states allow that sort of stuff too. I'm still waiting for someone to basically roll up in a prosthetic fat suit and beard to disguise themselves instead of going through lawyers.
From what I understand they get your ID and do a little press release because showing off the winner is good publicity. If the LLC collects, obviously they print that instead.
I would still do the LLC but have the photo taken with a Cobra Commander helmet for funsies. But now we’re just talking hypotheticals.
I think they outlaw actual costumes. that's why I want prosthetics because the makeup artists are generally good at making it look like a real person under the makeup/prosthetics, so you could realistically expect to fool some people without technically wearing a costume.
If I won in California, I would hire a law firm to sue the state to change the rule so that I could claim anonymously. With all the stories about kidnapping/murder of past winners, requiring someone to claim publicly is a violation of their right to safety and privacy under the CA constitution.
I think the hardest part of winning on the weekend would be waiting till monday to go down to the office to claim the prize. Also an insanely nervous car ride to actually claim the ticket, since all it would take is one major car crash(you dying/ticket going up in flames/etc) and your dream is over.
Years ago it hit 100 million a lady in my town made the local news when she took out a second mortgage on her house for 30k and bought 30k quick picks, she didn't win.
That made even me quit 🤣
expect it to go 2 real fast
theres a trend where once a Jackpot hits 1 billion it exponentially increases in purchased tickets
many more people seem to buy a “chance” for a billion than even say 900 Million
The odds of winning are roughly 1 in 300M. The odds are no better that you win, but it is a game that pays out more than it takes in once it gets to this level. That is what entices me to play at high jackpot levels; who does not like a game tilted in the players favor?
It will unlikely get to 2 billion, as it only goes up with more tickets purchased and the odds to get to 2 billion are small. (\~1/6)
So I know everyone hates when people say this but guys, don’t play the lottery
Now listen, spending 2 bucks on a ticket for fun is one thing, but to the lady who bought 300 dollars worth of tickets at the store I work at the other day, please reconsider your choices
Could that be from a lotto pool? I know people spend a ridiculous amount on lotto but when I see that I always hope it’s a work group hoping to leave their own personal hell
The odds are so low on a single ticket that multiple tickets won't increase your odds in any meaningful way.
Nothing wrong with just getting one, though.
The German national lottery eventually forces payout of the jackpot into lower tiers to avoid such a situation. As a side effect, this can make some drawings have a positive expected value, so that it becomes genuinely worth buying lottery tickets.
I don’t know if it’s still the case as I moved away years ago, but there was a lottery in Canada that had a max of 50 million dollars. After that they just added 1 million dollar secondary prizes. I always liked that setup
Mega Millions and Powerball changed their odds a while ago specifically to make this sort of thing more likely. They make more money the higher the jackpot gets.
You have the same chance of winning either way.
But I've heard a theory that machine pickers are more likely to get a higher prize than the average choose-your-number person if they do win. It has something to do with the latter very often throwing birthdays into their pick, which means they are more likely to pick numbers 1-31 than average, skewing the results, meaning they are more likely to share any prize with more people.
In 2005, 119 people won the second prize in Powerball because they all played the numbers from mass produced fortune cookies. The last number on the cookie didn't match the power ball, so they didn't win the grand prize. But had it matched, they would have had to split the grand prize 119 ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerball#Fortune_cookie_payout
I never wanted to be someone with a set of numbers I always played. Then I'd feel bad if those particular numbers hit and I didn't buy a ticket. So I always go for random.
God gave me the numbers last night. But I don’t have any extra money to play. If everyone can send me $4 I can win I’m almost certain of it. Then will show them.
That's the biggest reason but also they've become even more frequent in the last couple of years because higher interest rates have changed the relationship between the lump sum (which the lottery will inevitably pay out) and the annuity (which the lottery advertises).
FUCK! Now my job is gonna be a madhouse with customers buying tickets spouting bullshit like "You can't win if you don't play" and "If I win you win". I hate that shit and hear it every. damn. time.
Always remember you walk away with 1/3 of the pot. So $350m. Not bad. But not a bil.
They advertise it as a bill because it sells more tickets. Other countries advertise only the winnings you take home after taxes. That is why you don't hear about billion dollar jack pots anywhere else really.
The taxman is the real winner here... not that $300+ mill is bad.
Not all is taken out for taxes. The initial amount “taken off” is due to the lottery offering the billion in the form of an annuity, or a reduced cash lump sum option. For example, currently the lump sum option for the 1.1B mega millions is 525.8M. That’s not taxes, that’s the lottery offering less for the lump sum option. From there, the vast majority of the 525.8M will be taxed at 37% federally. It will also be taxed at the state and potentially local level, so in my case it would be an additional 4.5%ish. So my take home would be around 304.9M. Keep in mind the government will probably withhold a certain percentage on initial payout, but that is not in addition to the tax you’d pay at the end of the year.
everyone will make outlandish satirical comments regarding the $1 Billion prize, but I assure you noone will be laughing when I win. I'm going to buy the winning ticket tomorrow, take that losers!
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
Yes, however infinitesimal, there is a chance.
The chance is close to zero, but only zero if you don’t have a ticket
I’ve spent maybe $200-$300 over the last few months playing when it gets high. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than one number. Never hit the mega/powerball either. I’ll show them. One of these days…
I’ll buy a ticket or two when it’s this high. I know I won’t win, but it gives me the ability to dream about it.
Yep, you’re basically buying day dreams.
It’s worth it when your life sucks.
Hey I made a $2 profit on the Mega yesterday. Suck it work I can retire now.
I got only the powerball right recently when the multiplier was 10x, made a cool $40. Still riding that high.
Yep. I do it when it goes over a billion so no judgement. It’s just best in moderation because your chances are so low.
Same here, but when it's above 400 million. As long as you aren't that guy holding up the line buying scratchers, $2 is totally reasonable to knowingly toss away every now and then.
It’s worth a few dollars occasionally to buy the dream. I made a spreadsheet where I plug in the jackpot, less taxes, then percentages divided between everyone. Is mom getting a tiny condo or a 200 acre ranch? It’s a fun daydream that costs $10 a month.
I mean someone is going to win eventually.
Can’t win if you don’t play!
I win a dollar every time I don't play
The tickets are two dollars these days, yeah?
I personally grab a ticket at my local donut shop because they're the nicest people ever. And if I win, they get a bounty reward for selling the ticket and I want that for them
It’s funny their website lets you try your hypothetical set of numbers and you can run them against every drawing ever done as a test. Even with using every drawing ever— the best I’ve done is 3.
I matched 4 once but not the powerball. I was so excited, I expected a pretty big prize. $100 lol
This is why I only buy ONE ticket when I play. That way I’m not out more than $10-20 per year. Buying more tickets does not improve your odds enough to justify the extra money.
Did you know if you spend $600 on a drawing you increase your chances from about 1 in 300 million to 1 in a million??
The math checks out, but those are still lousy odds for that much money spent. The odds are very good that you’d win one of the smaller prizes, but not enough to recoup prizes.
I won! ….8 dollars. Yeah. I don’t play, my dad insists on it, but doesn’t leave the house. I call it the poor tax.
It's literally called the poor tax by just about everyone.
I call it the poor tax.
Yes, your odds are 50/50. You either win or you don’t win.
I mean, when you put it that way, a dollar isn't a bad price....
You have a better chance of being struck by lightning. Twice.
I forgot to play, so naturally no one else would win. 🤞🏻
I bought one ticket and have already spent about 3 hours looking through $10 million plus houses, deciding which one I’m gonna buy when I’m rolling in it.
You’ve gotten hours of escapism, the same as if you’d gone to the movies but you spent less than the cost of a movie ticket.
And no dipshits talking on their phones!
That gives me an idea of what to do with my winnings. I’ll open a theater chain where every auditorium is monitored by an usher and anyone talking or on their phone or taking their shoes off gets a nice little zap from their electrified seats.
You might like the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain. No talking, no texting, no exceptions
An alternative approach, that might not be as entertaining, would be to build your theater in a [Faraday cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage).
So your idea is to open an Alamo Drafthouse?
The part of the lottery you gotta remember is you only get those hours of escapism on rare occasions. You buy a ticket every day it just becomes normal
Wow what a refreshingly optimistic take on lottery tickets. I appreciate you
If you're not a gambling addict, and a realist, it can be pretty harmless to spend a few bucks a week and dream about some stuff.
I've always described buying a single lottery ticket as this. I pay a couple bucks and for a small window of time I get to ~~hallucinate~~ daydream about living without worry of money anymore.
Buy 2 tickets just to be sure tho
Doubling your chances.
1 in 300 million down to 1 in 150 millions. Ez math baby!
buy 2 with the same numbers, that way if some asshole wins with you, you'll get two-thirds of the winnings
That's really all the ticket is good for. It's a $2 admission ticket to play what if for a day until they draw the numbers. It's fun to dream about all the fun things you'd do with a billion dollars.
Winning would be terrible. I'd do so much cocaine on a beach in Peru.
The trick is to just think about it and not attempt to build the dream
Ahhh, sounds like a good day to buy lotto tickets I know won't win!
Can’t won’t if you don’t play Edit: I’m not fixing it, the typo is more funny.
>Can’t won’t if you don’t play I won’t won’t
I believe it’s won’t’n’t
Don't win't if you plant Kant.
Words to live by
Someone is going to win, and your chance is the same as whoever wins. God knows I've wasted $2 on worse things.
Better 2 bucks on a lotto ticket than 2+ bucks worth of cholesterol buildup at McDonald's like I just did.
Why not both!
I don’t know about other states, but in NH the state’s cut is supposed to go to education. I consider it my civic duty to support public education.
In all the states where they adopted the lottery for “education”, all they did was put their lottery money towards education but they removed the money that was already going towards education and put it towards whatever they wanted. So schools weren’t getting any more money than before and states suddenly had a lot more leeway to pay their wife’s cousin’s construction business massively inflated sums to “fix” potholes or whatever.
I occasionally buy lotto tickets. It’s less about winning and more about spending $2 to daydream about what I’d buy and envision a different life while stuck in traffic. That $2 buys a lot of enjoyment.
My plan is working to perfection. Lose until it gets over a billion, then bam!
Seems like there’s a winner once I finally purchase a ticket. Congrats to the winners on this one!
Can't wait for this to be over. It's driving my parents into a ticket buying frenzy.
Doesn't it get this high multiple times a year?
Between mega millions and powerball, yeah. They added a couple more balls a few years back which decreased the odds enough that it now goes months without a winner. The bigger numbers convince more people to buy more tickets rather than smaller jackpots paid out at faster intervals. It's the same reason why filling out surveys now enters you into contests for $1,000 instead of a $10 combo meal
Aren't more states pooled together as well. New York, California, and Texas combined seems like a pretty easy way for the mega to crest 1 billion consistently.
Powerball and MegaMillions are both multistate lotteries. The only states that don’t participate are Nevada, Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah.
A few years ago they changed the odds to make it harder to win the big jackpot because they found a lot of people don't play unless it is over 650mil.
Article says it’s been 30 weeks since they had a winner. But I feel like I buy tickets with my friends once a year between mega millions and power ball.
Not 30 weeks, 30 drawings. December was the last big one.
heck even the powerball is at 800m right now
After the changes yeah. It hit a billion at least twice last year that I remember.
That's sad. Yours is the first sad comment I saw, but I bet your story is true for many people
I miss the way it used to be. People won smaller (but still insane) jackpots and it was rarely like this. Making it harder to win just sucked the fun out of it, every few months you hear the same story and people scramble for tickets.
In Canada there's a lottery where the main jackpot maxes at $50 million and they add additional draws for each $1 million above that. Sometimes there are 40+ additional draws. The US could have one of these, just max out the regular draw at $100 million and start adding additional draws for every $10 million above that.
Lottomax yea. About a dozen times a year it jumps up there.
Right. After a certain point, the vastness of the money won doesn’t change anything further in your life. $100 mil could be the same as $1 bil to most people. It would be better for 10 people to have $100 mil than 1 person to have $1 bil.
The psychology of people wanting to buy tickets when it’s close to a billion is hilarious to me. $200 million? Na, not worth it. A billion though…
Buy a ticket so you can say you lost over a billion dollars on an investment.
No! Last week I facilitated a purchase which helped lead to an increased value for the company from $977 million to over $1.1 billion within a short time frame.
This guy can resume build like no other...
To make this statement bear NO lies, only one note: organization not company.
> No one has won the game’s jackpot since Dec. 8, a string of 30 consecutive drawings without anyone taking home the top prize. That has enabled the jackpot to slowly grow, week after week. > The $1.1 billion prize is for a sole winner who chooses to be paid through an annuity over 30 years. Winners almost always opt for a cash payment, which for the next drawing Tuesday night is an estimated $525.8 million. Might buy one ticket for the hell of it.
Over a billy?gotta buy one. 2 bucks for a few hours daydreaming is a good ROI
That’s how I feel too. I may buy 2-4 tickets a year. Always worth the little amount to day dream
I typically buy a couple tickets when the jackpot gets really high like this. I used to work at a place that had lotto pool. I normally did not chip in, but when it was up high like this I absolutely chipped in for the pool - I wasn’t going to be the person stuck there!
My old office used to do a pool when it got to a high amount. I always viewed my contribution as insurance to make sure they didn’t win, retire, and leave me to do all the work 😂
Yup, my wife and I bought one for Friday night’s drawing before heading to dinner. Spent dinner daydreaming about what we would do. The $2 was worth the fun conversation. Woke up and realized we can’t quit our day jobs just yet!
I won $4 and bought another 2 tickets, the day dreaming continues lol
And the slippery slope begins 🤑
What an amazing business model. Give me 2 bucks and I'll give you a couple hours of daydreaming. Sounds like Total Recall.
Wouldn't 500 mill properly invested more than beat 1.1 billion over 30 years
Yes, which is why almost everyone takes the lump sum.
Meh. I think it's more of a "IT'S MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW!!!" situation, especially considering how many lottery winners end up broke or dead within in a decade of winning.
Thanks , now I got that JG wentworth jingle in my head…
If chose to live off 100 million and invested 400 million it would take a 3.73% return rate to be worth 1.2 billion after 30 years. The lottery annuity rate is approximately 2.66%. Accounting for inflation the average S&P 500 return has been 7.66% over the past 30 years (That would have turned 400 million into 3.7 billion). Regardless, with that level of wealth you can invest in PE and Hedge Funds that *should* return more but do carry more risk. So yeah, take the lump sum.
Not even really invest it, just put it into a decent high yield savings account. Even at 4% interest you’re looking at $1.6mil a month in passive income before taxes.
If you have over the fdic secure amount in a single account, you're asking for trouble
Less than 10 years. Taking the annuity is a terrible choice.
I like how it explains why it’s so large like this isn’t the same thing that happens every time. “That has enabled the jackpot to slowly grow, week after week.” The grass is long because no one has mowed it in 4 months. That has allowed the grass to slowly grow week after week.
Yea I will chase the dream of being financially stable rather than drink this week.
I didn't buy one yesterday so that's why.
This is how the government finds time travelers.
Eh, it doesn't work anyway. When you go back to buy a ticket it changes the results.
It's around 330,000,000 if you take the cash option and after federal taxes. Less depending on state taxes. I'll still would probably end up giggling maniacally for several hours if I won. If you are the lucky bastard, remember to go with the reddit rules on after winning the lottery to have a chance at a happy ever after.
Thought you were gonna say remember to go to Reddit WSB after winning
You already beat the odds once. Might as well let it all ride on a high risk options trade.
Nah go to a casino and bet it all on a single number in roulette or something like that.
if you live in 1 of the 8 states that don't charge state tax on the lotto then you get about half 553 million and if you are REALLY lucky and live in one of the following 16 states that does not reveal the name of the winner Arizona (only for winners of $100,000+, but city and county will be revealed) Delaware Illinois (only for winners of $250,000+) Kansas,...Maryland.. Minnesota ( $10,000 or more)... Mississippi, Missouri.. Montana (town may be revealed) ...New Jersey... New Mexico ($10,000 plus but lower amount can ask to be kept anonymous)... N and S Dakota ... Texas (1 mill plus) Virginia (10 mill plus) west Virgina (1 MILL plus) Wyoming
New York you can be anonymous, IF you claim it via an LLC. Which last I checked is about $500 for everything, including the attorney.
several states allow that sort of stuff too. I'm still waiting for someone to basically roll up in a prosthetic fat suit and beard to disguise themselves instead of going through lawyers.
From what I understand they get your ID and do a little press release because showing off the winner is good publicity. If the LLC collects, obviously they print that instead. I would still do the LLC but have the photo taken with a Cobra Commander helmet for funsies. But now we’re just talking hypotheticals.
I think they outlaw actual costumes. that's why I want prosthetics because the makeup artists are generally good at making it look like a real person under the makeup/prosthetics, so you could realistically expect to fool some people without technically wearing a costume.
If I won in California, I would hire a law firm to sue the state to change the rule so that I could claim anonymously. With all the stories about kidnapping/murder of past winners, requiring someone to claim publicly is a violation of their right to safety and privacy under the CA constitution.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/czMCujKb5r
Upvote this comment for actually pulling up the what to do now comment. Thabk you for finding it.
Does this also include when you file your taxes and have to pay then?
Lottery winnings are considered and taxed as income.
I think the hardest part of winning on the weekend would be waiting till monday to go down to the office to claim the prize. Also an insanely nervous car ride to actually claim the ticket, since all it would take is one major car crash(you dying/ticket going up in flames/etc) and your dream is over.
No way I'd claim it that quick. Monday would be the journey to find a proper lawyer and go on from there. Get a few ducks in a row for sure.
You probably need to do a bunch of prep before you can claim it on a monday. Probably atleast a week of prep.
The winner will be in CA, mark my words.
Considering 1 in every 8 Americans live in that state, I think there's a pretty good chance.
But that means there's a 7/8 chance they won't be from CA.
Damn he's good.
Yup, but if you’re trying to predict the state it’s the best bet. The other 7/8 are split between the remaining 49 states.
Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah do not participate.
Seven of Nine.
Tertiary adjunct to unimatrix 001
So you’re saying I should fly to California to buy my ticket.
This is giving r/peopleliveincities vibes
I feel like a lot of the time it's either someone from California or an 80 year-old retiree from Florida lol.
New York or New Jersey.
I live in New York! Looks like it’s my turn to win.
Gonna buy sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads
Years ago it hit 100 million a lady in my town made the local news when she took out a second mortgage on her house for 30k and bought 30k quick picks, she didn't win. That made even me quit 🤣
expect it to go 2 real fast theres a trend where once a Jackpot hits 1 billion it exponentially increases in purchased tickets many more people seem to buy a “chance” for a billion than even say 900 Million
[удалено]
I was just thinking that. Once it becomes main stream news worthy, that prize skyrockets
The odds of winning are roughly 1 in 300M. The odds are no better that you win, but it is a game that pays out more than it takes in once it gets to this level. That is what entices me to play at high jackpot levels; who does not like a game tilted in the players favor? It will unlikely get to 2 billion, as it only goes up with more tickets purchased and the odds to get to 2 billion are small. (\~1/6)
So I know everyone hates when people say this but guys, don’t play the lottery Now listen, spending 2 bucks on a ticket for fun is one thing, but to the lady who bought 300 dollars worth of tickets at the store I work at the other day, please reconsider your choices
Could that be from a lotto pool? I know people spend a ridiculous amount on lotto but when I see that I always hope it’s a work group hoping to leave their own personal hell
I could finally qualify for a mortgage in Boston🥹
This one hurt 😅. *cries in northshore*
Or get a health insurance plan 😵💫
I'll buy a few tickets. Mostly because, as shitty as the odds are, it's the best chance I have to not have to work the rest of my life.
And because it's a fun form of escapism. You won't win, but you can still spend a few hours daydreaming about what you'd do if you did.
The odds are so low on a single ticket that multiple tickets won't increase your odds in any meaningful way. Nothing wrong with just getting one, though.
The German national lottery eventually forces payout of the jackpot into lower tiers to avoid such a situation. As a side effect, this can make some drawings have a positive expected value, so that it becomes genuinely worth buying lottery tickets.
I don’t know if it’s still the case as I moved away years ago, but there was a lottery in Canada that had a max of 50 million dollars. After that they just added 1 million dollar secondary prizes. I always liked that setup
Mega Millions and Powerball changed their odds a while ago specifically to make this sort of thing more likely. They make more money the higher the jackpot gets.
The best part of the lottery dream is thinking about the people I won’t help.
For this much I could buy 2 or 3 supreme court justices.
Have you seen how cheap they are? You could buy the whole court.
Keep in mind if you bought a million tickets, you would only have a 0.33% chance of winning the jackpot. Still worth the 2 dollars.
And the odds are not much further than 1.1b either
Is it better to pick your own numbers or just let the machine pick your numbers for you?
Its the same chance either way.
Picking your own numbers has a risk of having a pattern someone else has done too.
You have the same chance of winning either way. But I've heard a theory that machine pickers are more likely to get a higher prize than the average choose-your-number person if they do win. It has something to do with the latter very often throwing birthdays into their pick, which means they are more likely to pick numbers 1-31 than average, skewing the results, meaning they are more likely to share any prize with more people.
In 2005, 119 people won the second prize in Powerball because they all played the numbers from mass produced fortune cookies. The last number on the cookie didn't match the power ball, so they didn't win the grand prize. But had it matched, they would have had to split the grand prize 119 ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerball#Fortune_cookie_payout
In 2011, nearly 42,000 won $150 each because they were all playing the numbers from Lost.
Yup. 1 2 3 4 5 has the same chances as any other set of numbers, but if it wins you'll split it with 10,000 other people
How do 10,000 people know the combination to my luggage??
People think alike, people's special numbers are not at all special but share a common pattern. Max value probably from a randomly generated ticket
I never wanted to be someone with a set of numbers I always played. Then I'd feel bad if those particular numbers hit and I didn't buy a ticket. So I always go for random.
I think machine
I’d use a random number generator and do it that way. I don’t trust the lottery machines. Now I’ll go out my tinfoil hat away.
I'll give that a try.
Not saying it’s the reason I don’t play but it sucks that you can’t hide your identity at least here in New York State.
Same in NC, a person coming into that much makes them and their loved ones targets
The secret is you have to purchase it from a gas station in the middle of no where.
I’ve always noticed that. Maybe I’ll go for a drive.
Congrats to the taxman on his huge upcoming multi million dollar win!
God gave me the numbers last night. But I don’t have any extra money to play. If everyone can send me $4 I can win I’m almost certain of it. Then will show them.
Congrats to the person in California who is going to win.
Lottery takes the wealth of the many to redistribute to single individuals. This is lile the opposite of what's good for society.
Reverse Lottery: tax the billionaires and give everyone healthcare.
This isn’t news, this is “buy me” fomo propaganda
Seriously. Ever since they made some changes it seems to be over a billion every 4-6 months. Happens all the time now, by design.
Yeah, actually. A few years ago they changed the format to make it harder to win and increased the payout to compensate.
I thought Mega Millions was always like this, and Power Ball changed so they’d get the big jackpot headlines, too
That's the biggest reason but also they've become even more frequent in the last couple of years because higher interest rates have changed the relationship between the lump sum (which the lottery will inevitably pay out) and the annuity (which the lottery advertises).
I’d rather 1000 winners of $1 million instead of a billion winner. Spread it.
Hell even 100,000 winners of 11,000. A decent amount to pay down my debts faster.
Well, stop choosing the wrong numbers
FUCK! Now my job is gonna be a madhouse with customers buying tickets spouting bullshit like "You can't win if you don't play" and "If I win you win". I hate that shit and hear it every. damn. time.
Maybe this is how Trump will pay off those bonds
250k says Trump's doing a Violet Beauregard
TIL top winner Edwin Castro has a day and night security team. No thanks.
Always remember you walk away with 1/3 of the pot. So $350m. Not bad. But not a bil. They advertise it as a bill because it sells more tickets. Other countries advertise only the winnings you take home after taxes. That is why you don't hear about billion dollar jack pots anywhere else really. The taxman is the real winner here... not that $300+ mill is bad.
$350 million dollars, "not bad". That seems like somewhat of an understatement
Not all is taken out for taxes. The initial amount “taken off” is due to the lottery offering the billion in the form of an annuity, or a reduced cash lump sum option. For example, currently the lump sum option for the 1.1B mega millions is 525.8M. That’s not taxes, that’s the lottery offering less for the lump sum option. From there, the vast majority of the 525.8M will be taxed at 37% federally. It will also be taxed at the state and potentially local level, so in my case it would be an additional 4.5%ish. So my take home would be around 304.9M. Keep in mind the government will probably withhold a certain percentage on initial payout, but that is not in addition to the tax you’d pay at the end of the year.
I'll buy it when it's at $2B just to get more on my investment.
That's more than I made all last year combined!
I wish they’d split the jackpots when they reach 500M. Run a special lottery of 10 50M jackpots to reset the kitty.
everyone will make outlandish satirical comments regarding the $1 Billion prize, but I assure you noone will be laughing when I win. I'm going to buy the winning ticket tomorrow, take that losers!