Megamillions now 1.6B!!

[Sooon]

No winner, next one is gonna be $1.6+ billion.

 

[JEDI]

Maaaaaan, I would totally do another, but I am traveling all this next week .

$1.6B!

you back from travel?
do you take zelle?

 

[BUTCH1]

I think wawa still has an any size coffee for $1 promo going. That's a better use of a dollar, and almost equal chances of becoming rich afterward.

Yea, I played it last Tuesday, 1st time, I was LOL'ing when I saw the numbers, 1-70 on the main pick and then 1-20 on the powerball pick. There's a reason 300 million+ tickets were sold and God knows how many were bought Friday as well and yet not one got the prize. Not even worth the $2 IMO.

 

[ponyo]

Yea, I played it last Tuesday, 1st time, I was LOL'ing when I saw the numbers, 1-70 on the main pick and then 1-20 on the powerball pick. There's a reason 300 million+ tickets were sold and God knows how many were bought Friday as well and yet not one got the prize. Not even worth the $2 IMO.

I didn't even know Mega had gone up to $2. It's still worth it for me to buy one ticket when the jackpot is $1.6 billion. I'll be making the $2 donation.

 

[clamum]

Yeah I figured the lines might be long last night but not where I went. I got mine at Meijer (south Michigan grocery store, like Walmart) and there was only two people in front of me in the Customer Service line.

I think I'll get some Powerball tickets tonight for that paltry $460 million jackpot.

 

[Svnla]

I didn't even know Mega had gone up to $2. It's still worth it for me to buy one ticket when the jackpot is $1.6 billion. I'll be making the $2 donation.

Both the Powerballs and Megamillions are up to $2 per regular ticket and the odds to win are lower because of a lot more numbers to pick.

Last night the lines at the gas station and local grocery store were longer than normal. It will be even longer next week.

Not sure why Walmart stores do not sell lottery tickets or even scratch off.

 

[tortoise]

Long line in Primm . . on California side of Nevada state line south of Las Vegas (no Nevada state lottery) . . Google aerial.

Always puzzling why so many are willing to wait HOURS in line at Primm, when there are other options.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Just think about it this way....if there weren't so many suckers, it would not be 1.6B. That is a LOT of wasted cash.

 

[IronWing]

Just think about it this way....if there weren't so many suckers, it would not be 1.6B. That is a LOT of wasted cash.

It’s an inefficient method of collecting taxes but people seem to really like it.

 

[BUTCH1]

Long line in Primm . . on California side of Nevada state line south of Las Vegas (no Nevada state lottery) . . Google aerial.

Always puzzling why so many are willing to wait HOURS in line at Primm, when there are other options.

WOW....Those lines are HUGE!, I could not imagine spending hours and hours waiting to try 300 million to 1 odds. People see that massive jackpot and dismiss any notion of the simple math as to how it got so big.

 

[BUTCH1]

I didn't even know Mega had gone up to $2. It's still worth it for me to buy one ticket when the jackpot is $1.6 billion. I'll be making the $2 donation.

I won't, for tuesday's drawing I had 5 tickets, got one number on 2 tickets, that's IT.

 

[dingster1]

I could go be that guy in line I suppose. Since I've never bought a ticket, I would have to stand at the counter asking how the whole thing works and have the cashier walk me through the entire process. I can already sense the anger growing behind me as someone's ice cream melts.

Yeah you and me both

 

[BUTCH1]

technically, yes, I think. (I was wrong on the number for megamillions though--I think it is still 265,000,000? something like that). But that all depends if each individual ticket is its own unique number, of course. You're not going to systematically create your own numbers to insure that with such a buy-in, so you are just hoping that quick pick does it for you.

for 100 tickets, you'd have essentially no chance of duplicates. 1,000,000 tickets, you probably have a couple of duplicates using quick pick. But hey--what if you duplicate the jackpot numbers?

There was some story, years ago, about a very large buy-in--FL, I think--where dozens and dozens of people did try to buy up nearly every combination in one of the big state lottos. It kinda works if the jackpot is high enough....but then what happens, as did to those morons, Ms Gotschweiller buying her first ever lotto ticket on her way from the hairdressers also hit the jackpot, so now she gets half of the pool and those other saps are now on the hook for at least 10s of thousands each.

It was an individual person here in FL, the late '80's early '90's. The lotto grew to an unprecedented $113 million and, (at that time), there were 13.4 million possible combinations. So a mega-rich dude in the Tampa area told the lotto office he wanted to indeed buy every. single. combination. for the upcoming drawing. The lotto office said they were not set up at all for this type of transaction, (he could not just hand them a cashiers check or bank transfer and call it done), but if he could somehow figure out the logistics filling out 13.4 million lotto slips and get them processed at retail locations they could not legally stop it. Dude than gave up and luck went his way, 6 tickets split the jackpot, he would have lost his ass, (remember that $$ figure is a 20 year payout, not lump sum).

 

[BUTCH1]

I could go be that guy in line I suppose. Since I've never bought a ticket, I would have to stand at the counter asking how the whole thing works and have the cashier walk me through the entire process. I can already sense the anger growing behind me as someone's ice cream melts.

You can go online and see how any lotto game is played.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's crazy. The government is going to laugh all the way to the bank when they get most of it. Either way the millions that the winner is going to get is going to be more than enough to be set for life.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I got annoyed that my money clip had too many bills and cards in it so much that the magnet wasn't working well... So i got rid of my 6 $1 bills and got 3 sets of numbers.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

That's crazy. The government is going to laugh all the way to the bank when they get most of it. Either way the millions that the winner is going to get is going to be more than enough to be set for life.

All I can say is I hope whoever wins is smart enough to hire a lawyer so they can directly deposit it into a trust fund or a business so that the public can't see who won.

 

[zinfamous]

I didn't even know Mega had gone up to $2. It's still worth it for me to buy one ticket when the jackpot is $1.6 billion. I'll be making the $2 donation.

yup. They added some balls to the "mega number" or something a few years ago. I was wrong earlier--it means the odds are now 1 : 302,000,000 but probably some other numbers in there. 302 million is what matters, though.

It's ridiculous. These bullshit national lotteries just trying to one-up each other. People are buying into this shit at fever pitches and the lotto runners just watch how it escalates at that magic number: $500 million or so. The best way to keep those good times going: up the odds, increase the weeks between winners and grow those pots ever larger, and ever larger, and ever larger.

These things really need to follow the model of the Spanish annual lotto: something like ~5k winners per year, very solid odds, with an average payoff of something like $50k per winner. It's real money, and a lot of people win. (I am pulling those numbers out of my ass--I think it is actually better than that).

 

[lxskllr]

I have a better idea. Decrease taxes, and decrease spending so you don't have to take advantage of the dumber members of society to keep your shit running. Everyone wins a little bit. Not as exciting as showing big numbers on the idiotbox to get the dummies worked up, but it's fair and equitable.

 

[zinfamous]

I have a better idea. Decrease taxes, and decrease spending so you don't have to take advantage of the dumber members of society to keep your shit running. Everyone wins a little bit. Not as exciting as showing big numbers on the idiotbox to get the dummies worked up, but it's fair and equitable.

Oh, but we did just decrease taxes for the people that tend to buy lotto tickets....oh, but it's really a very expensive loan that the drafters of the bill calculated to cost about 20x more than what those poor suckers are "saving" now...Oh? say it ain't so....Oh wait, those same people don't exactly realize that/don't care/don't really live their lives in such a way where such long-term thinking (e.g.: 3 years or more) factors into their planning?

I mean, I get what you're saying, I really do. But I think this model (lotto) could actually work if it were actually public, and not run under the guise of being public, but really being a private money-grubbing conservative wet dream. If it were designed to actually distribute cash/wealth and not hoard it for ever-larger grabs.

Shit, I've ruined the thread.

 

[lxskllr]

Oh, but we did just decrease taxes for the people that tend to buy lotto tickets....oh, but it's really a very expensive loan that the drafters of the bill calculated to cost about 20x more than what those poor suckers are "saving" now...Oh? say it ain't so....Oh wait, those same people don't exactly realize that/don't care/don't really live their lives in such a way where such long-term thinking (e.g.: 3 years or more) factors into their planning?

I mean, I get what you're saying, I really do. But I think this model (lotto) could actually work if it were actually public, and not run under the guise of being public, but really being a private money-grubbing conservative wet dream. If it were designed to actually distribute cash/wealth and not hoard it for ever-larger grabs.

Shit, I've ruined the thread.

They did half the plan. You also have to cut spending. That means all spending, including the military. There needs to be a better way to fund government. Not the bullshit we have now where agencies piss away money so they get as much if not more the next year. Not sure how to do it atm. I'm not paid to think of such things, and no one gives a shit about my ideas anyway, but it could be done. Cut out the waste, and we might be able to do something crazy like give people healthcare.

 

[manly]

I’d expect the jackpot to reach $1.8B. I’ll donate $6 to the cause.

Probabilistically, it is highly likely there will be not just one winning ticket, but 2 or 3 on Tuesday night.

 

[IronWing]

I’d expect the jackpot to reach $1.8B. I’ll donate $6 to the cause.

Probabilistically, it is highly likely there will be not just one winning ticket, but 2 or 3 on Tuesday night.

Your killing my buzz. I was screwing up to buying a ticket.

 

[sportage]

Wasn't the span between 1 and 50? Was the numbers raised to over 60?
That sure reduced the chances.
I won't play. I'll let someone else win.
If I had that kind of luck, I'd discover Ross Perot was my real father.

 

[who?]

In Arkansas the lottery money goes to fund scholarships so the regular taxes are still needed to fund the usual stuff.