Powerball @ $245 million

[MikeyLSU]

Originally posted by: Kwaipie
I love it when people don't play until it is an absurd amount of money. 245 million, sure! 50 million? why bother.

I am one of those people...I'm not going to play every singe drawing, that would add up.

It is a combination of things...

1) odds, if the lottery is above $200 million, your cash odds are much better than when it is $10 million.

2) remember you only take home around 35% or so of the lottery after the lump sum and taxes.

 

[thepd7]

lol just remember that different odds situations get multiplied. odds of flipping a coin heads? 1/2. Odds of flipping a coin heads twice? 1/2 times 1/2 = 1/4.

 

[trmiv]

Yea, it takes the large sums for me to actually go out of my way to buy tickets.

 

[her209]

Why does it take the jackpot going over $100 million before some people start participating? As if someone would turn down $7 million.

 

[MikeyLSU]

it is not about turning it down...but to many it is about odds. When the lottery is at $300 million, you are getting better than 1:1 odds on winning the lottery...when it is at $15 million, you are getting way less than that.

 

[bctbct]

Originally posted by: her209
Why does it take the jackpot going over $100 million before some people start participating? As if someone would turn down $7 million.

Greed, thats why i'm playing anyway

 

[jandrews]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: jandrews
Is it worth it? No because its basically impossible. Sure, 'somebody' wins but lets get real here.

There's a brilliant analysis: Somebody wins, but it's impossible to win. By your logic (or lack thereof) all those somebodies who did win should not have played because it was impossible for them to have won?

Nowhere did I state that it is impossible to win. It is just so unlikely why even bother? Of course it is every individuals money and it pays for tax projects so knock yourself out, just more taxes I will never have to pay I suppose. Go ahead and defend your lottery the opiate of the masses. Shoot, all you hear about big winners is how sad they are anyway and how things went to hell albeit some do good. I said what I said to try to make people picture in their head how unlikely it is to win the lottery. It is impossible for people to quantify 175 million in their heads.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: bctbct

Originally posted by: her209
Why does it take the jackpot going over $100 million before some people start participating? As if someone would turn down $7 million.

Greed, thats why i'm playing anyway

I'm playing to get my 'retirement fund'

 

[Turin39789]

Prediction - none of you will win.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: jandrews
Is it worth it? No because its basically impossible. Sure, 'somebody' wins but lets get real here.

There's a brilliant analysis: Somebody wins, but it's impossible to win. By your logic (or lack thereof) all those somebodies who did win should not have played because it was impossible for them to have won?

"Nobody ever goes there anymore, it's too crowded"

Your comment just me think of that quote.

 

[Doodoo]

Sure the odds are slim...but ya gotta be in it to win it. It's not like 5 bucks is going to prevent you from eating dinner tonite.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: jandrews

odds are a funny thing, it would seem so much more likely to win 3 times out of 550 people than once in 175 million people, stuff like this makes my head hurt. Time to get the computer sim to do random odds testing!!

The 'feels like' method of calculating odds is also known as gambler's probability.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: jandrews

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: jandrews
The way I see it, I picture it as there is 1000 baseball stadiums lined up down the road, there is one winner in each stadium. You have to enter each stadium, become the 1 winner of the 30,000 fans and then move to the next stadium. You must be the 1 winner of 30,000 fans in each of the stadium to win the money. Is it worth it? No because its basically impossible. Sure, 'somebody' wins but lets get real here.

Yeah.. but the odds aren't 1 to 30000^1000.

oh pardon me, are they worse than that?

It's orders of magnitude better. You're just as likely to win the powerball 543 times in a row than to win your stadium game.

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: her209
Why does it take the jackpot going over $100 million before some people start participating? As if someone would turn down $7 million.

For me it's mainly because I don't want to spend money on it every week. Also I rarely go into convenience stores, and the grocery store I shop at doesn't sell them, so I just never think about going to buy any until I see that big number on the sign I pass on the freeway.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Originally posted by: her209
Why does it take the jackpot going over $100 million before some people start participating? As if someone would turn down $7 million.

Pot odds.

 

[skyking]

Why I buy tickets......

damned expensive hobbies

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: jandrews
Is it worth it? No because its basically impossible. Sure, 'somebody' wins but lets get real here.

There's a brilliant analysis: Somebody wins, but it's impossible to win. By your logic (or lack thereof) all those somebodies who did win should not have played because it was impossible for them to have won?

A statistics teacher would probably describe the odds of winning the lottery as "statistically insignificant". In other words, the odds are so close to zero (0.0000... %) that they might as well be zero.

Funny... it sounds a lot like another ATOT argument when you put it like that

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: MikeyLSU
it is not about turning it down...but to many it is about odds. When the lottery is at $300 million, you are getting better than 1:1 odds on winning the lottery...when it is at $15 million, you are getting way less than that.

+EV FTW

but you also have to ask yourself how much added value is $150M over $50M? (ie: intrinsic value)

ie:
are you 3x happier with $150M than $50M?

(Psst.. the answer is no)

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: trmiv
Yea, it takes the large sums for me to actually go out of my way to buy tickets.

same here.

Unless it's over $150 million and/or there is no media hype I don't bother. Which is funny considering my chances are even less.

What the hell I had four extra $1 bills and bought $4 today.

First order of business is quit our jobs, payoff debts, travel down under and buy some property/vehicles and a yacht larger than Paul Allen's then claim BK. Damn that was fun. Back to flipping burgers now.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: trmiv
Yea, it takes the large sums for me to actually go out of my way to buy tickets.

same here.

Unless it's over $150 million and/or there is no media hype I don't bother. Which is funny considering my chances are even less.

What the hell I had four extra $1 bills and bought $4 today.

First order of business is quit our jobs, payoff debts, travel down under and buy some property/vehicles and a yacht larger than Paul Allen's then claim BK. Damn that was fun. Back to flipping burgers now.

Your chances of winning aren't actually less...though your chances of being the only winner are..

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Yeah, I'll pay a buck in idiot tax for this one. When the jackpot gets big like this I'll buy 1 $1 ticket for giggles.

 

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
Prediction - none of you will win.

I'd ask you to bet on that, but if I won, I wouldn't need your money anyway

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
There's a brilliant analysis: Somebody wins, but it's impossible to win. By your logic (or lack thereof) all those somebodies who did win should not have played because it was impossible for them to have won?

A statistics teacher would probably describe the odds of winning the lottery as "statistically insignificant". In other words, the odds are so close to zero (0.0000... %) that they might as well be zero.

Funny... it sounds a lot like another ATOT argument when you put it like that

Best quote I heard about the lottery, especially the Powerball, is "I figure I'm as likely to win the lottery whether I play or not." Those 1 in 80 million odds are just so spectacular.

 

[QueBert]

I would probably play the lottery more if I actually won ANYTHING. 3 numbers on Super Lotto is like 2 bucks, I play and play and play and play. Ok, not that much but every time I play I seem to always get no numbers at all. So when I play I end up feeling I don't even have a chance to win 2 damn dollars.

the store I use to work at had Lotto, we had a couple who played everything, super lotto, mega millions, keno, scratchers. One time the lotto jackpot was up to like 90 million, they hit 5/6 numbers and won like $29,000 nothing to sneeze at, but 1 more digit and it would have added almost 90 million more to their total.

Mega's 170? Great I'll buy one ticket in hopes I hit 3 numbers and win 5 bucks haha.

 

[daveymark]

is there any place online that broadcasts the powerball drawing? what's the quickest way to find out the winning numbers online?