Ticket Sales Fly as Lottery Jackpot Sets Record
AP
NEW YORK (March 6) – Lottery machines cranked out tickets at a dizzying rate Tuesday as the multistate Mega Millions game drew bettors with a jackpot estimated at a record $355 million.
Because of the huge prize and publicity, the 12 participating states agreed to move Tuesday night’s drawing from the game’s usual home in Atlanta to New York’s Times Square.
Although this would be the biggest Mega Millions jackpot, there was a $363 million jackpot in 2000 when it was known as the seven-state Big Game. That prize was split by two winners.
The competing Powerball game — available in 29 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands — has the record for the largest single winner with $314.9 million, on Christmas Day.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 176 million.
Here is the full article.
So here are a few questions for you:
1. Do you play the lottery?
2. If the jackpot is huge, are you more likely to play?
3. Have you ever won the lottery?
4. What would you do with the $355 million if you win it? 🙂
1. Sometimes
2. Not really
3. I won $100 on a scratch off.
4. Pay off debt, hire a full time aide for my mom, open a small business, keep 1 million, then donate the rest.
Tonights lotto drawing in Illinois is worth $350 million and I already have the winning ticket for it.
All you people in Illinois need to go buy somemore tickets so our jackpot will be larger than New Yorks.
Did you know if you stood on top of the Empire State Building, placed a Dixie cup on the street below, and threw a quarter over your shoulder, you would hae a better chance of gettin the quarter in the cup than winning the Megamillions. This is a proven mathmatical fact.
The $355 million is a 26-year annuity, the present value of which is approx. $186 million. (In other words, the state governments are not violating state laws when they lie to us.)
Because of the rollovver, it’s not an idiot tax this week. If you throw a dollar into the pot at the office, your 1/15 share would yield $7.3 million after tax, which should yield $293K tax-free & leave corpus intact. Not enough to radically change our lives, perhaps, but it will do.
Or if we annuitize, we might get $583K after tax for 26 years, then zilch. (Yawn.)
Might also be out a dollar.
Present value of payoff 186 million
Odds 1 in 176 million.
Hmm…
Of course if there are multiple winners then your back in expected loss land. This does remind me of a progressive state lottery where the odds became so good after a paucity of winners that a group of investors went and bought a ticket for every single number. He, he if the odds are with you you might as well go about it like a pro.
I buy a lotto ticket every now and then. Yeah, the enormous prizes help. Like right now, if the prize is 350 million (well, ignore taxes and discounting), and the chance of winning is 1 in 176 million, the tickets are worth about 2 dollars each in expected winnings but they cost only 1 dollar, they are a bargain.
If I won, hmm, I hear they now sell “patron entries” so low rated players like me can enter the US championship for 50,000 dollars. I wonder how much they would charge to actually win the tournament. (Just kidding).
1. Do you play the lottery?
Even with the astronomical odds, it’s only a buck or two a week, so why not? 🙂
2. If the jackpot is huge, are you more likely to play?
I play every week, but I only buy one ticket, no matter what the prize. The silly people are those buying dozens of tickets when that won’t affect the odds.
3. Have you ever won the lottery?
A couple of hundred buck off scratchers. That’s it. But hope springs eternal. 🙂
4. What would you do with the $355 million if you win it? 🙂
Change my phone number. 🙂
1. no I do not play
2. yes I played once on a big one
3. LOL
4. HaHa Don’t be silly.
Maybe I should not say this as gambling is not too good. But one way to look at it is the value of a ticket.
if the odds of winning are 1/2 of the amount of money for prize then then value of the ticket is $2 but can be purchased for $1. So the value is good. There is one problem. The odds remain the same at 1 chance in 176 million of winning twice the money.
when a new lottery starts up the value is probably 50 cents. so it is better to purchase tickets only when the value is say $4 or more.
It is really dumb to purchase a ticket for $1 that has a value of 50 cents.
So here are a few questions for you:
1. Always
2. More (Work Lotto Pools)
3. 2,000 biggest
4. Double Susan Polgar’s Chess Tournaments and have International Chess Tournament in USA with top players and local best players. Hire Susan to give me private lessons :o)
1. No. I don’t Gamble
2. No. No difference
3. Obviously not
4. Well, thats not going to happen
well i dont ever play the lottery but i played this because of the jackpot 🙂 If i won that much money I could do a little bit of everything 🙂 but Id also help build a brighter future for chess.
I have heard it said that lotteries are a tax on the stupid.
Rarely
Yes
No
Buy a taragato
1. no(not old enough)
2. definately
3. no(not old enough)
4. keep 19 million, have a great life, and donate the rest
1 Yes
2 Definitely
3 No
4 1st I’d hire a great Chess Player/Teacher. I’d call up Robert Fischer in Iceland and make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. If Bobby refused, Susan are you available LOL? Im talking blank check! ; ) And in between studying chess, dating beautiful women, and traveling to places like Tahiti, Hawaii, I’d shop for my own little island. Then I would try to help as many charitable organizations that I could along with spoiling myself with rich mans toys.
1) Very rarely. The odds are low and, statistically, it is a very bad investment even when the jackpot is high.
2) No. As the prize money goes up, so do the number of players and the chances of more than one person winning at the same time. It is not a better investment.
3) I won the pick-3 once, around $400.
4) Use about half to set up a caritable foundation dedicated to science education and medical research. Put the rest away. Retire. Travel the world by bicycle, build way-cool astronomical observatory in Arizona, and take chess lessons from a well known GM or IM during the sedentary periods.
Brad Hoehne