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$310 Million Expected Winnings for Mega Millions

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Originally posted by: MDE
Originally posted by: Xenon
If we do a group buy and get ourselves an ATOT pool of several thousand tickets we can cut the odds to 1 in 5000 or so. Let's do this!
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There actually are people (companies, venture capitalists, I forgot) that raise the cash to buy one of every number combination when the jackpots get this high. Nothing like guaranteeing a win.
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I doubt that... There is a 1 in 168,000,000 chance of you winning, the amount you win would be less then 168,000,000 if you took the cash option. Since there is a 1 in 168,000,000 chance of winning, that'd mean that you'd have to pay for 168,000,000 tickets. Even the prizes below that jackpot would not give you enough money to justify it. You'd have to wait until like it hits 400,000,000 to even consider that, and to my knowledge the lottery has never been that high.
 
Originally posted by: JLGatsby
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: surreal1221
Originally posted by: her209
Originally posted by: JLGatsby
Lottery = white trash investment pool.
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I'm not white.
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lol, owned.

If lotteries will continue to fund education. . . then hell, I'm in, as we all know tax money and funding from government grants is still not enough to keep us educated compared to the rest of the world.
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You should know that for every lottery dollar, most states take back one of their dollars for education. This is common in a lot of private ventures to add to the state's or federal money.

The only real winner in lotteries and casinos are the owners. However, if I can be one of the chumps that gets the winning ticket despite the rest of my 'team' losing...so be it.
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Wouldn't it be a better education to teach them the logic that would prevent them from playing the lottery?

Think of how much better the world would be if people didn't fall for scams like that.
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dude, you have way too much free time trying to disprove everyone about the lottery. when one of us wins, we'll see how you respond!

scams or not, every contest has odds. people have beaten the odds.
 
Originally posted by: QurazyQuisp
Originally posted by: MDE
Originally posted by: Xenon
If we do a group buy and get ourselves an ATOT pool of several thousand tickets we can cut the odds to 1 in 5000 or so. Let's do this!
Click to expand...
There actually are people (companies, venture capitalists, I forgot) that raise the cash to buy one of every number combination when the jackpots get this high. Nothing like guaranteeing a win.
Click to expand...

I doubt that... There is a 1 in 168,000,000 chance of you winning, the amount you win would be less then 168,000,000 if you took the cash option. Since there is a 1 in 168,000,000 chance of winning, that'd mean that you'd have to pay for 168,000,000 tickets. Even the prizes below that jackpot would not give you enough money to justify it. You'd have to wait until like it hits 400,000,000 to even consider that, and to my knowledge the lottery has never been that high.
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First, I don't care what people say. I am buying the tickets because I can dream about what I would do with close to 1/3 of a billion dollars (I know ... I know ... the lump sum thing). Anyway, you entertain yourself one way, I can buy lotto tickets when the jackpot is 100 million dollars. Someone has to eventually win, why not me?

Odds are 168 million to 1 so it would take a large group of people day and night to key in all the possibilities. Plus, like others have said, the payoffs may not be large enough for the risk.
Anyway, I am trying to find more information on a group called the Australian lottery syndicate. They apparently tried to buy all 7 million combinations in the Virginia lottery in March 5,1992 when the jackpot was 27 million dollars. They either won and here pdf and hereor they did not. I am not sure if this is an urban legend (it wasn't listed on snopes) but if the odds are low enough, isomeone may risk it.

Anyway, what's a few bucks for a couple days of thinking what you would do as a mega millionaire.

Edit:
Looks like it may have been true - those Aussie!
 
If you buy 5 tickets do the odds drop to 5/168000000, and so on? If so, you buy 10 tickets and you have a 1/16.8mil chance to win 300mil.. Seems like good odds.
 
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
If you buy 5 tickets do the odds drop to 5/168000000, and so on? If so, you buy 10 tickets and you have a 1/16.8mil chance to win 300mil.. Seems like good odds.
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uh - no. Each ticket has the same chance of winning 1:168 million whether you buy 1 or buy ten.
 
Originally posted by: chowderhead
Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
If you buy 5 tickets do the odds drop to 5/168000000, and so on? If so, you buy 10 tickets and you have a 1/16.8mil chance to win 300mil.. Seems like good odds.
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uh - no. Each ticket has the same chance of winning 1:168 million whether you buy 1 or buy ten.
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^ drawing today

yes but collectively you have ten times better odds to win

if you buy 168 million possible combinations you are guaranteed to win
 
My wife bought a ticket and played some numbers she likes on it. She gets a kick out of it, and it only cost me $1 to make her happy for the evening.

Given how much it NORMALLY costs to make a woman happy for the evening, $1 is a steal! 🙂
 
I bought a couple of tickets. Joking around with my co-workers about what we're going to do if we win makes it worth it even if I don't. Hey, the few dollars I spent I could blow on something else in a few minutes anyway, at least this has the chance, however small, to have a big return. And if I don't win? Who gives a crap, not like I lost a bunch of money. Oh but if I do......................................................😀
 
Its for entertainment purposes... no one's being scammed because there will be a winner eventually. As for investment purposes of buying all the combinations, you're going to be boned if there are 2 winners (in which you have to split the money).

Oh yea, if I win, I'm going to be some random ATOT a new WRX. Ha.
 
Originally posted by: dexvx
Its for entertainment purposes... no one's being scammed because there will be a winner eventually. As for investment purposes of buying all the combinations, you're going to be boned if there are 2 winners (in which you have to split the money).

Oh yea, if I win, I'm going to be some random ATOT a new WRX. Ha.
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F that. If I win I'm going to buy two WRX's. One to give to a random ATOTer, and the other to smash with a bat. Just because I can.
 
Originally posted by: trmiv
F that. If I win I'm going to buy two WRX's. One to give to a random ATOTer, and the other to smash with a bat. Just because I can.
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I still wouldn't waste money like that... seems kind of pointless.
 
Originally posted by: dexvx
Originally posted by: trmiv
F that. If I win I'm going to buy two WRX's. One to give to a random ATOTer, and the other to smash with a bat. Just because I can.
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I still wouldn't waste money like that... seems kind of pointless.
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It's a joke dude. Laugh at it.
 
Originally posted by: bunker
And this is sooo funny because someone in this thread will win just to prove it.
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Well hell, I had to post in this thread then before I went out and bought my ticket! 😉 😛 😀
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yes, indeed...... someone have to win!!! well eventually
 
The actual prize is much less since they only pay in installments. Plus even if expected value was positive you would have a huge variance which most people aren't comfortable with.
 
Originally posted by: Paul Ma
The actual prize is much less since they only pay in installments. Plus even if expected value was positive you would have a huge variance which most people aren't comfortable with.
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You have the option to take a lump sum if you wish. It's something I don't have to worry about, but someone in Anaheim CA will.


 
Originally posted by: JLGatsby
BREAKING NEWS: EVERYONE ON ATOT LOST THE LOTTERY.
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:roll:

You seem to be missing the point here. Take your head out of your lower body orifice and let the rest of the people enjoy this thread. You are not any smarter (I'd go in the other direction on this one for you) than anyone here, everyone in this thread knows the possibility of them winning is very very low. They mostly buy the ticket as an ENTERTAINMENT sort of thing, NOT as an investment.

For the record, I've never played the lottery, and I don't intend to anytime soon.
 
Originally posted by: MaxDSP
Originally posted by: JLGatsby
BREAKING NEWS: EVERYONE ON ATOT LOST THE LOTTERY.
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:roll:

You seem to be missing the point here. Take your head out of your lower body orifice and let the rest of the people enjoy this thread. You are not any smarter (I'd go in the other direction on this one for you) than anyone here, everyone in this thread knows the possibility of them winning is very very low. They mostly buy the ticket as an ENTERTAINMENT sort of thing, NOT as an investment.

For the record, I've never played the lottery, and I don't intend to anytime soon.
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What's so entertaining about losing?
 
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