Power Ball and Mega Millions

[Gregg]

I can't remember the last time I bought a lottery ticket. This week both of them were extremely large and I had to run some errands, so I figured what the heck.

I invested $2 each (for one number each). Just saw on NBC News that both rolled over. But hey that does not mean I couldn't win a smaller prize. So I got my tickets and just checked. I got exactly zero matches, nadda, not even one! Ha.

Someone will eventually beat the odds of 302M to 1. Maybe I should double up and cut those odds in half? Ha. just kidding.

[Moonlight J]

highest hit was 4 numbers + powerball which paid out $50K on powerball

Mega Millions had 4 + the MB & paid out $10K + someone had a megaplier & got $40K

[umjewman]

In a pool with my high school friends. There was a million dollar ticket sold earlier this week in New Jersey at the same store where my buddy bought our tickets. It was not ours, alas.

[Sour Masher]

In a pool with my high school friends. There was a million dollar ticket sold earlier this week in New Jersey at the same store where my buddy bought our tickets. It was not ours, alas.

There is a gas station two blocks from my house that sold a 2 million dollar mega ticket last week. The way my brain works is that despite the fact that I know it does not impact current odds at all, I'm like, what are the chances of someone from my area winning now right after that hit?!

[umjewman]

There is a gas station two blocks from my house that sold a 2 million dollar mega ticket last week. The way my brain works is that despite the fact that I know it does not impact current odds at all, I'm like, what are the chances of someone from my area winning now right after that hit?!

Haha, on our text chain, people were telling him to buy from a different place because the store will never sell another winner!

[Sour Masher]

Haha, on our text chain, people were telling him to buy from a different place because the store will never sell another winner!

This is why Vegas does so well, and why Roulette profits skyrocketed once they added the board of past hits. It makes not impact on what comes next, but I'd see a board where red came up 10 times in a row and I'd bet on black. Stupid brain.

[madducks]

I'm waiting for the jackpot to reach a billion dollars before i play.

[Sour Masher]

I'm waiting for the jackpot to reach a billion dollars before i play.

Yeah, barely worth playing below that . In truth, the ROI is already over the price of the ticket, which is very rare. However, that assumes a single winner, and there rarely is just one winner when it gets this big and more people buy.

[Ken]

This is why Vegas does so well, and why Roulette profits skyrocketed once they added the board of past hits. It makes not impact on what comes next, but I'd see a board where red came up 10 times in a row and I'd bet on black. Stupid brain.

I’d go red. Red is killing it. Momentum, black can’t keep up.

[madducks]

[madducks]

[Judge Jude]

"The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math."

true

but I once interviewed a Princeton mathematics professor. neither he nor his peers I spoke with at other esteemed universities had ever bought a lottery ticket (surprise!).

but he had sort of a mathematical angle to a sociological answer - his point being that when a lottery jackpot gets this large, it inevitably becomes a topic of discussion at the lunch table at work (long before COVID disclaimer).

he said that by purchasing the ticket, you earned a right into a potentially spirited discussion. one colleague would buy a massive yacht and invite 100 friends to sail around the world each year, another would buy their own island, another would ease a major charitable need, or buy a grand home for their son or daughter and their new family, and so on.

that discussion would be quite enjoyable for everyone, pass the time at lunch, and provide for a fun conversation with a spouse at dinnertime that night. then the couple could trade their own fantasies about what to do with all that money.

as far as he was concerned, the price of the lottery ticket for all that? it seemed like a bargain to him.

[umjewman]

My office pool actually hit 50K once. We all got about 900 after taxes. The look on people’s faces who did not participate in the pool was priceless.

But yeah, I only buy a ticket when it gets to these mammoth ones. It’s just less money I’ll flush away on terrible prop bets on DraftKings.

[Gregg]

I’d go red. Red is killing it. Momentum, black can’t keep up.

Ride the hot until it is not.

[Gregg]

"The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math."

true

And yet, since the first lottery began there is eventually and always a winner. 100% of the time someone has won the Power and Mega lotteries. Barring end times there will be at least one person that will buck the odds and win for these two current big ones.

100% chance of not winning to those who do not play. I fall into that category much more often than not.