I've never played the lottery. In general, I don't gamble. I've thought about it when the payout gets this high, but it's still pretty stupid no matter how you rationalize it.

(October 20, 2018 at 10:08 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: I've never played the lottery.  In general, I don't gamble.  I've thought about it when the payout gets this high, but it's still pretty stupid no matter how you rationalize it.

Yep.

I refuse to pay the stupidity tax.

(October 20, 2018 at 8:53 am)Kit Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 8:52 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Never gambled at all?

Nope.  Never stepped into a casino, nor have I ever done Bingo.

You need to get out of that bubble you've been living in. 


None of our tickets were winners even for the tiny amounts. I told Rob that we weren't meant to win Friday's drawing, but we were meant to win next Tuesday

Gotta stay positive. I need to relocate to the Bahamas in six years!

I would seriously be afraid for my life here in Tinytown if I won that kind of money. It would be a logistics nightmare since I'd have to find another place to live, pack, move, get major security, etc. on new place, all BEFORE coming forward and claiming my winnings. We don't have the kind of money it would take to do that.

But I think I could find a way to rise to the challenge.

Joke for you:
There was a blonde woman named, Cindy, that was in deep financial problems. So she got on her knees and prayed "Dear
God, please let me win the lottery. I really need your help or I'll loose my car, the house, and everything else." She doesn't
win. The next day she prays to God "God! I really really need your help! I'll loose my car, the house, and everything else."
Once again, she doesn't win. The next day she says the same prayer; then God speaks to her " Cindy! work with me here, BUY
A TICKET!!"

(October 20, 2018 at 8:55 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 8:52 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Never gambled at all?

Nowt wrong with gambling, but odds of 300 000 000 to 1 against is a mug's game.

Boru

Yeah, but if it is 1.6 billion you are winning, it makes sense to buy a ticket.

(October 20, 2018 at 10:04 am)outtathereligioncloset Wrote: I buy it when it gets super high (like now).  I see it as my $2 contribution to the NC education funds.  Or whatever part of that $2 actually goes there.

I also play scratch offs, probably too often.  Most I've won is $40 on a $2 ticket.

Then you will be disappointed by this:

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/mega-mi...really-go/

Quote:The Mega Millions jackpot is now more than $1 billion – where does all that lottery profit really go?

Quote:An April study from the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research showed that many states – including California, Florida and Michigan – simply substitute lottery revenues for normal appropriations. As of 2016, North Carolina devoted a smaller portion of its total budget to education than it did before starting the lottery.

(October 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Yeah, but if it is 1.6 billion you are winning, it makes sense to buy a ticket.

"There's a sucker born every minute." — P.T. Barnum

I think Barnum under-estimated a bit....

How Mega Millions changed the odds to create a record-breaking $1.6 billion jackpot

Quote:They don’t buy lottery tickets. Not habitually, anyway.

But the jackpot chasers typically emerge when they see the Mega Millions prize tick up and up and up, and they figure, “Hell, why not?”

That’s by design.

And if you have noticed a run of eye-popping jackpots from Mega Millions and the similarly designed Powerball recently, that’s by design, too.

---

Mega Millions has existed in some form since 1996. But only recently has the game been shelling out massive jackpots. The lottery officials who run Mega Millions tweaked the rules and odds of the game last October to make jackpots pay out less frequently, spurring their monster growth. Since that change, three of the six largest Mega Millions jackpots have been paid out.

And then there’s the current, record-shattering Mega Millions drawing.

“Ultimately, these games, they’re all about the jackpots,” Gordon Medenica, Maryland’s lottery and gaming director, told The Washington Post.

Medenica, the lead director of the lottery consortium known as the Mega Millions Group, said in a statement Saturday that “Mega Millions has already entered historic territory, but it’s truly astounding to think that now the jackpot has reached an all-time world record. It’s hard to overstate how exciting this is — but now it’s really getting fun.”

And, of course, jackpot mania is kicking in across the country — exactly the way lottery officials dreamed it up.

The officials had been worried that the relatively smaller but more frequent prizes — a “paltry” $100 million, for instance — would result in “jackpot fatigue,” which is why they tweaked the game last year, Medenica told The Post.

---

Here’s how Mega Millions used to work: Players picked five numbers from 1 to 75 and a Mega number from 1 to 15. The odds of winning the top prize were 1 in 258,890,850.

Since Mega Millions modified the formula, players now pick five numbers from 1 to 70 and a Mega number of 1 to 25. The odds of winning the jackpot are now 1 in 302,575,350.

Reducing the number of balls for the first five numbers increases the chances of winning a smaller prize. But raising the number of Mega Balls makes it harder to win the jackpot. (You still win the big jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.)

Speculation is it will hit $2 billion. Sounds like fun.

(October 20, 2018 at 1:02 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Yeah, but if it is 1.6 billion you are winning, it makes sense to buy a ticket.

"There's a sucker born every minute." — P.T. Barnum

I think Barnum under-estimated a bit....

How Mega Millions changed the odds to create a record-breaking $1.6 billion jackpot

Quote:They don’t buy lottery tickets. Not habitually, anyway.

But the jackpot chasers typically emerge when they see the Mega Millions prize tick up and up and up, and they figure, “Hell, why not?”

That’s by design.

And if you have noticed a run of eye-popping jackpots from Mega Millions and the similarly designed Powerball recently, that’s by design, too.

---

Mega Millions has existed in some form since 1996. But only recently has the game been shelling out massive jackpots. The lottery officials who run Mega Millions tweaked the rules and odds of the game last October to make jackpots pay out less frequently, spurring their monster growth. Since that change, three of the six largest Mega Millions jackpots have been paid out.

And then there’s the current, record-shattering Mega Millions drawing.

“Ultimately, these games, they’re all about the jackpots,” Gordon Medenica, Maryland’s lottery and gaming director, told The Washington Post.

Medenica, the lead director of the lottery consortium known as the Mega Millions Group, said in a statement Saturday that “Mega Millions has already entered historic territory, but it’s truly astounding to think that now the jackpot has reached an all-time world record. It’s hard to overstate how exciting this is — but now it’s really getting fun.”

And, of course, jackpot mania is kicking in across the country — exactly the way lottery officials dreamed it up.

The officials had been worried that the relatively smaller but more frequent prizes — a “paltry” $100 million, for instance — would result in “jackpot fatigue,” which is why they tweaked the game last year, Medenica told The Post.

---

Here’s how Mega Millions used to work: Players picked five numbers from 1 to 75 and a Mega number from 1 to 15. The odds of winning the top prize were 1 in 258,890,850.

Since Mega Millions modified the formula, players now pick five numbers from 1 to 70 and a Mega number of 1 to 25. The odds of winning the jackpot are now 1 in 302,575,350.

Reducing the number of balls for the first five numbers increases the chances of winning a smaller prize. But raising the number of Mega Balls makes it harder to win the jackpot. (You still win the big jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.)

Is a ticket 1$? It seems to me that anything over 302,000,000 dollars and you see the same return as odds.