Mega Millions = $370 million

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: KLin
http://www.megamillions.com/

:shocked: I guess I'll take a chance and waste 5 bucks .

i'm thinking of the LOST numbers

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Mallow
Someone's gonna win and have their life ruined! Ever hear of the lottery curse?

esplain

Originally posted by: TeeJay1952
When I retired I quit buying Lotto. If money was the issue I would have stayed working. I also quit craps, casinos and sportsbook. It is kind of sad but it is also very liberating.

so u quit life when u retired?

 

[herkulease]

yup, I only buy the lottery when it hits 200 mil plus. After atking cash prize and taxes I'll have enough to share it with everyone and we can all not have to work again.

totally forgot about friday's drawing of 275million, but good thing no one won.

If no one wins on tuesday, we'll likely see 400+ million dollar jackpot

 

[vital]

which state is this in?

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: vital
which state is this in?

Mega Millions is played in 12 states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: vital
which state is this in?

Did you try the link in the OP?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: trmiv
I rarely play the lottery, but I always buy tickets when it gets this big. What the hell, it's only $5-10 bucks for a chance at a fortune. What I hate is when I'm at work and someone comes by my cube and says "Hey, we're all putting in $5 in a group so we can buy a bunch of tickets, want to put in?" At that point, I'm pretty much obligated to put money in. Because what if I say "nah, not interested" and then Wednesday I find out these fools won? I'd jump off the building.

The "fools" where I work did the same thing; except the email to me stated that they would buy the tickets from several different locations in order to increase their chances of winning. (Incredibly flawed logic, and incredibly poor math.)

So, rather than feeling obligated to chip in $5, I did just that: called them fools. (In a smiling, not confrontational way, of course.)

Please tell me it was a secretary that sent that e-mail and not a teacher.

I'd have called them fools and still put in $5, because even a fool can get lucky.

I worked at a 7-Eleven when I was in high school, and the lack of logic some people used blew my mind. People would make me wait a few seconds between tickets to ensure that the numbers were "more random," or print them one at a time instead of five on a ticket. They worried that their numbers were too close together, or their lines had too many numbers in common. Even at 15 it amazed me how stupid people could be.

I remember the first time the Powerball got over $200 million or something like that... it was a huge deal, people were spending their life savings on lottery tickets. People were driving to other states and waiting in lines for hours to buy the tickets. The closest state that had the Powerball at the time was Delaware I think, but people would come into our store and INSIST we sold Powerball tickets.

 

[gotsmack]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Svnla

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Mallow
Someone's gonna win and have their life ruined! Ever hear of the lottery curse?

It isn't so much a curse as it is a test of character and sense that a lot of people happen to fail.

There is no such curse. If you win that much money and then broke less than 10 years, then you are a fool and don't deserve to live.

<<---- will buy a nice house, nice vehicle <all pay in cash> then put the rest in saving/investment and live in interest income and travel first class around the world if he wins

^^^ Rightttt...

The moment you win, relatives are going to be asking for handouts. Charities will be asking you for handouts. Criminals will be looking ways to extort money out of you. People will try to sue you for every penny. The way you look at and judge people around will change.

Got that part solved. I'll move to an area where everyone else is rich and not tell my relatives.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: gotsmack

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: Svnla

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Mallow
Someone's gonna win and have their life ruined! Ever hear of the lottery curse?

It isn't so much a curse as it is a test of character and sense that a lot of people happen to fail.

There is no such curse. If you win that much money and then broke less than 10 years, then you are a fool and don't deserve to live.

<<---- will buy a nice house, nice vehicle <all pay in cash> then put the rest in saving/investment and live in interest income and travel first class around the world if he wins

^^^ Rightttt...

The moment you win, relatives are going to be asking for handouts. Charities will be asking you for handouts. Criminals will be looking ways to extort money out of you. People will try to sue you for every penny. The way you look at and judge people around will change.

Got that part solved. I'll move to an area where everyone else is rich and not tell my relatives.

lol
my plan is to first buy a yacht and sail around the world

 

[KarmaPolice]

I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Ive bought tickets but ive never gotten any money on any of the ones i've picked. How many of you pick the numbers and how many of you do it at random from the machine. It would be intersting to see the % of people who pick and win and the% of people who do random, and then the % of people who win at random.

 

[d3n]

I'll usually pick up a powerball/mega millions whenever it pops over 100 mil.

 

[d3n]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Ive bought tickets but ive never gotten any money on any of the ones i've picked. How many of you pick the numbers and how many of you do it at random from the machine. It would be intersting to see the % of people who pick and win and the% of people who do random, and then the % of people who win at random.

I think the advantage is with people who let the machine pick the numbers.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

I only buy tickets when someone from my office organizes a pool, and it's not really worth it to organize a pool when it's at $4 million.

 

[DainBramaged]

Well, guess it's time to pony up my $5.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

I only buy tickets when someone from my office organizes a pool, and it's not really worth it to organize a pool when it's at $4 million.

ok i can see that argument.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Ive bought tickets but ive never gotten any money on any of the ones i've picked. How many of you pick the numbers and how many of you do it at random from the machine. It would be intersting to see the % of people who pick and win and the% of people who do random, and then the % of people who win at random.

odds of winning are 1:175M. but cash prize is 1/2 that, so you need $350M prize to make it correct odds to buy.

Why play a slot machine with 75% payout? play one w/100% payout

machine picked vs person picked numbers. ... it doesnt matter according tot he laws of probilty!

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

If you ever have to go on a long drive, buy a ticket, the time will go by really fast since everyone will want to talk about what they'll buy

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

People wait for lots of reasons, sometimes it really isn't that much to really retire and share the wealth with people close to you. Its kinda boring to be the only person in your close knit group to never have to work again and travel when the others still ahve the slave away. Factoring in people's urge to want to either pay off their debts right away or even splurge on new things bigger jackpot would be better. Plus it depends on what state you live in. 4 million bucks assuming that's after taxes doesn't mean much in california.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Ive bought tickets but ive never gotten any money on any of the ones i've picked. How many of you pick the numbers and how many of you do it at random from the machine. It would be intersting to see the % of people who pick and win and the% of people who do random, and then the % of people who win at random.

odds of winning are 1:175M. but cash prize is 1/2 that, so you need $350M prize to make it correct odds to buy.

Why play a slot machine with 75% payout? play one w/100% payout

machine picked vs person picked numbers. ... it doesnt matter according tot he laws of probilty!

sure from an odds point of view it works...but I dont see how that matters in this real life situation. The amount of money is so huge in both situations that it doesnt matter.

 

[MikeSci457DC]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Ive bought tickets but ive never gotten any money on any of the ones i've picked. How many of you pick the numbers and how many of you do it at random from the machine. It would be intersting to see the % of people who pick and win and the% of people who do random, and then the % of people who win at random.

odds of winning are 1:175M. but cash prize is 1/2 that, so you need $350M prize to make it correct odds to buy.

Why play a slot machine with 75% payout? play one w/100% payout

machine picked vs person picked numbers. ... it doesnt matter according tot he laws of probilty!

While you are right about machine picked numbers not being more likely to come up then hand picked numbers, a lot of people will pick the same popular numbers over and over agian, making the jackpot smaller if many popular numbers happen to come up.

 

[Midlander]

Originally posted by: supafly
I'm gonna improve my odds by buying 100 million tickets!!!!!!


Can I borrow $99.9 million from someone?

You mean you have the first $100,000. And you're going to put it to work in the lottery? :Q

 

[fustercluck]

Never heard of mega millions before...did they just come out of nowhere? SCAM!...jk - I noticed they're not in Arizona, can I play if I'm in arizona or not?

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: Midlander

Originally posted by: supafly
I'm gonna improve my odds by buying 100 million tickets!!!!!!


Can I borrow $99.9 million from someone?

You mean you have the first $100,000. And you're going to put it to work in the lottery? :Q

Ok, fine, I'll do $200k and you do $99.8 million. How's that sound?

 

[Midlander]

Originally posted by: supafly

Originally posted by: Midlander

Originally posted by: supafly
I'm gonna improve my odds by buying 100 million tickets!!!!!!


Can I borrow $99.9 million from someone?

You mean you have the first $100,000. And you're going to put it to work in the lottery? :Q

Ok, fine, I'll do $200k and you do $99.8 million. How's that sound?

OK, then. Fair is fair.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
I don't get why people start buying tickets when the amount gets to some insane number. If you want buy lottery tickets you should buy them at any point. When its down to 50million how is "well its just not enough for me to take the chance" make any sense. 4million would change your life just as much as 300million would. Doesn't make any sense to me.

the odds of picking the right numbers are something like 1 in 175 million. so if you're buying when it's 20 million you're getting about 7 cents of expected value on your dollar, and that's not even taking into consideration the cash value discount and taxes. so its more like 4 cents. if you start picking when the jackpot is higher you get closer to that dollar of expected value (although you can't match it because as the number goes up the chances of multiple winners increases, but i'm also not figuring in the lower prizes that you get for matching most of the numbers, which increases your expected value).


texas lotto's cash value is above the inverse of the odds right now. and i think the chances of multiple winners is low because everyone is focusing on mega millions.