Power Ball and Mega Millions

[Gregg]

Never let it be known that I don't pay my taxes! I already brought a ticket each for the drawings tomorrow and Wednesday. When I win, I'll buy a Baseball Prospectus for each of you.

I have not. Since I did last week I almost feel the need to see it through. But it is cold outside and nearest place to purchase is 7 blocks away. What to do what to do.

[Sour Masher]

well, if you don't play, then those who do are paying YOU (an infinitesimal amount of) tax!

Never let it be known that I don't pay my taxes! I already brought a ticket each for the drawings tomorrow and Wednesday. When I win, I'll buy a Baseball Prospectus for each of you.

[Judge Jude]

well, if you don't play, then those who do are paying YOU (an infinitesimal amount of) tax!

[Sour Masher]

"The lottery is a tax on 99.99% of people who are bad at math" doesn't have quite the same ring to it....

Hmm, it is still a tax on 100% of people who are bad at math, though. It's just that some of those people benefit from being bad at math. But even those people are taxed. The house always wins .

[Gregg]

"The lottery is a tax on 99.99% of people who are bad at math" doesn't have quite the same ring to it....

Sound came out of my short laugh burst.

Nicely played.

[Judge Jude]

"The lottery is a tax on 99.99% of people who are bad at math" doesn't have quite the same ring to it....

[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.

[Gregg]

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

Ride the hot until it is not.

[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.

[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.

[madducks]

[madducks]

[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.

[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.

[madducks]

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