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PSA: Mega Millions at 266 Mill-Update: someone won in CA

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They used to have live drawings with observers from some accounting company. Now they just announce the numbers. How do we know they don't sit on their hands in order for the winning amount to increase to $100m+? IMHO, that would entice a lot of people to play and the states would get a lot more money.
 
Mike Gayner said:
Wut? You guys pay tax on lottery winnings? What about if you win money as a casino or on a horse? Tax on windfalls is ridiculous.
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Lots of people in the USA make their living off of gambling at a casino (Poker). Should their occupation be tax-free?
 
Mike Gayner said:
Wut? You guys pay tax on lottery winnings? What about if you win money as a casino or on a horse? Tax on windfalls is ridiculous.
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Them Americans. In Canada the tax is pre-collected so the amount advertised is the amount awarded. And no 20 year annuity crap either.
 
sdifox said:
Them Americans. In Canada the tax is pre-collected so the amount advertised is the amount awarded. And no 20 year annuity crap either.
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whoop de friggin doo. Amount shown before or after tax is sorta nitpicking a bit?

In a multi-state lottery such as mega millions, theres no way to know the after tax amount anyways. Each state has it's own capital gains tax. Not to mention the tax rate can change depending on who you are.

ANd the 20/25 year annuity is OPTIONAL.
 
Train said:
whoop de friggin doo. Amount shown before or after tax is sorta nitpicking a bit?

In a multi-state lottery such as mega millions, theres no way to know the after tax amount anyways. Each state has it's own capital gains tax. Not to mention the tax rate can change depending on who you are.

ANd the 20/25 year annuity is OPTIONAL.
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But...but...we are still stupid americans!
 
Train said:
People who make fun of people playing the lottery, quoting math statistics, have obviously nevre heard the poker term "pot odds".
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What are the odds of winning? Are they less than 1:224,000,000? If such was the case then your "pot odds" are good, and if you continued to make this "bet" overtime you would eventually come out ahead. But I don't know what the odds are of winning. I would imagine that it's more than 1:224,000,000
 
illusion88 said:
What are the odds of winning? Are they less than 1:224,000,000? If such was the case then your "pot odds" are good, and if you continued to make this "bet" overtime you would eventually come out ahead. But I don't know what the odds are of winning. I would imagine that it's more than 1:224,000,000
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Not what I was getting at, but anyways, the odds of winning ARE better than 1:224M

Mega millions odds are 1:175,711,536
 
Train said:
whoop de friggin doo. Amount shown before or after tax is sorta nitpicking a bit?

In a multi-state lottery such as mega millions, theres no way to know the after tax amount anyways. Each state has it's own capital gains tax. Not to mention the tax rate can change depending on who you are.

ANd the 20/25 year annuity is OPTIONAL.
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Not really... We get paid x M no matter where we live in Canada, even on nation wide lotteries. You don't have to figure out what you have to pay for tax, WYSIWYG FTW!
 
sdifox said:
Not really... We get paid x M no matter where we live in Canada, even on nation wide lotteries. You don't have to figure out what you have to pay for tax, WYSIWYG FTW!
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Mega Millions (which this thread is about) is a USA, multi-state lottery.

Stay On topic FTW!
 
Train said:
Mega Millions (which this thread is about) is a USA, multi-state lottery.

Stay On topic FTW!
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And I am saying it should say X M and give you X M, no matter where you live. Lottery was setup to supplement government income, thus it should take x percent of the take and the rest is winnings for the people who buy the tickets, end of story.
Same thing with the game shows.
 
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Mike Gayner said:
Wut? You guys pay tax on lottery winnings? What about if you win money as a casino or on a horse? Tax on windfalls is ridiculous.
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it's an income tax. winnings are income.

illusion88 said:
What are the odds of winning? Are they less than 1:224,000,000? If such was the case then your "pot odds" are good, and if you continued to make this "bet" overtime you would eventually come out ahead. But I don't know what the odds are of winning. I would imagine that it's more than 1:224,000,000
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i laid out the expected value earlier in the thread.
 
Train said:
Not what I was getting at, but anyways, the odds of winning ARE better than 1:224M

Mega millions odds are 1:175,711,536
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Once it gets high though you have to account the odds of having to split with someone, which would likely bring the adjusted total below 224m.

Just sayin!
 
You can also rationalize playing the lottery as just donating $1.00 to education every week, since that's where the money goes. That $1.00 probably would have just gone to junk food anyway.
 
ElFenix said:
it's an income tax. winnings are income.


i laid out the expected value earlier in the thread.
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Hmmm, do you happen to know if or where the break even point is on the mega millions when the expected value of a $1 ticket is more than $1? Part of me sees a huge pot that people keep pouring money into, and eventually the pot should be worth more than the tickets if the ticket price doesn't change. But, I just can't believe the lotto ever becomes a winning game.
 
ElFenix said:
overall odds of winning something 1 to 39.89

expected value of a ticket at $224 million, if you don't split the prize (which does happen): $1.45702076 (which also doesn't take taxes into account)

using estimated cash value from txlottery, we come up with expected value of a ticket being $0.967832637


anyone know the historical odds for split jackpots? it depends on the number of buys, so we'd have to know it for very large jackpots.
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huh? what?

how is EV .968?

Odds of winning is 1:176M
So you need a cash prize close to $176M to EV= 1.

Jackpot is $224M, which translates into a cash prize of $138M.

138/176 = .78

How did you get .968?
 
cheezy321 said:
Lots of people in the USA make their living off of gambling at a casino (Poker). Should their occupation be tax-free?
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In NZ windfalls are tax free, but it's not a windfall if you make a business out of it. Professional gamblers are required to pay income tax.

sdifox said:
Them Americans. In Canada the tax is pre-collected so the amount advertised is the amount awarded. And no 20 year annuity crap either.
Click to expand...
But you still pay tax on windfall earnings? Don't you feel like at that point the government is kinda overreaching?

ElFenix said:
it's an income tax. winnings are income.
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I don't agree that winnings are income. Windfalls are unexpected on-off payments which aren't due to personal exertion or risk of capital. In NZ that doesn't fit the definition of income.

If I go to a USA casino and win $20k, am I expected to pay tax on that?
 
Mike Gayner said:
But you still pay tax on windfall earnings? Don't you feel like at that point the government is kinda overreaching?


I don't agree that winnings are income. Windfalls are unexpected on-off payments which aren't due to personal exertion or risk of capital. In NZ that doesn't fit the definition of income.

If I go to a USA casino and win $20k, am I expected to pay tax on that?
Click to expand...

In Canada, if the lottery says the jackpot is 40M, you get 40M, you still have to report it, but you don't have to pay tax on that.

in USA you will pay tax, but you (as a kiwi) can file for tax refund. Don't know if it is all recoverable though.
 
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