$550 Million Dollar Lottery

[Knowl Paine]

I'm sure that many people in the States who play the lotto are aware of the current jackpot of $550 million. The amount will likely grow before Tuesday's drawing.

Mega Millions is bi-weekly lottery with 43 US States participating. The current lottery is higher than the GDP of many Nations.

I don't like to gamble. I give the money to a friend who buys the tickets for me.

It is possible to win without buying a ticket. You could find a ticket or someone could give you a ticket.

The winner will probably be some old person. If so, I hope it's one of the old people in my family. :smileyvery-happy:

Just wanted to share the info.

 

http://www.megamillions.com/

 

Edit: for relevance, LL should run a SL lottery.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Everyone,

You do understand that the odds of winning are astronomical?

You WILL certainly:

1) Die in a car crash

2) Get struck by lightning

3) Get killed by a home-invasion robber wearing a purple ski-mask

4) Break a bone...

Before even coming close to willing that Lotto -

Just sain'

 

[Aislin Ceawlin]

I don't personally play the lottery because I'm just not lucky. That being said, SOMEONE has to win! It is unlikely, but it's less likely if you don't try at all! 

Edited for typo

[Kenbro Utu]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

Everyone,

You do understand that the odds of winning are astronomical?

You WILL certainly:

1) Die in a car crash

2) Get struck by lightning

3) Get killed by a home-invasion robber wearing a purple ski-mask

4) Break a bone...

Before even coming close to willing that Lotto -

Just sain'

 

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And this is true for all except for the winner(s).

[Dillon Levenque]

Yes. If  you don't acquire a ticket, you have no chance at all of winning. If you DO acquire a ticket, your chances are better. Not very much better,  but better.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

I don't like to gamble. I give the money to a friend who buys the tickets for me.

---

I have a similar arrangement with a friend. He gets me my cigarettes.

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Edit: for relevance, LL should run a SL lottery.

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There used to be one, though not run by LL. One of the few "games of chance" that was worth it, in my opinion. I used to be a Pothead.

[Canoro Philipp]

It surprise me that they earn so much money from people buying tickets that they are willing to give up to 550 million dollars for the cost of one ticket.

for sure the winner is not going to recieve the full 550, the government will want some share, other companies will want their share, but still, the millions that the winner end up with are life changing.

[Kenbro Utu]

In Texas, a majority of the profits from the lottery program go to directly to public education.  Not sure of other states.

Edit to add:  Also this particular lottery is spread across 40 some states, individual state lotteries don't get that high that I am aware of.  You can take an annuity or a cash sum.  The cash sum for that amount I think is 397 million or some odd.  Of course, for the annuity payments, you get the full sum eventually (or at least your estate does if you die). I can't recall the longevity of the annuity at the moment.  

[Canoro Philipp]

I understand the reason to not give all the cash, the company that invested that amount don't want to be without funds to make the next lottery.

I would take the cash sum, it doesn't matter if it's less, I can invest it and make it grow. since there are people interested that the earlier that you die, the more they are going to earn, there is no guarantee that you are going to live to recieve the total sum.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

"The company" isn't putting that money into the jackpot. Payouts to winners and expenses (including monies distributed to participating States that go towards education, etc.) are paid by funds raised through tickets sold.

[Canoro Philipp]

then it will be right to give some of the money to those who helped raise it, after all you wouldn't have it they wouldn't help get it all together.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I don't think you're getting how a lottery works...

http://www.howstuffworks.com/lottery.htm

[Knowl Paine]

 

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

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Knowl Paine wrote:

I don't like to gamble. I give the money to a friend who buys the tickets for me.

---

I have a similar arrangement with a friend. He gets me my cigarettes.

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lol :smileyvery-happy:

[Aislin Ceawlin]

Same in Michigan

[Knowl Paine]

The cash value sum is currently 295 Million.

The full amount is paid in a 20 year annuity. The tax is 30% If you don't make any major purchases with the money for 1 year, the tax rate is slightly reduced. The government is one of the winners, yes.

A high percentage of Lottery winners are broke within 1 year of winning. Some end up dead from their own indulgence in finer things.

I might do what Larry Flint and Howard Hughes did, lock myself in a room until I figure out what I want to do.

[Knowl Paine]

The lottery recently added another ball to to the drawing. They did that because if you count the numbers of time each ball has been drawn, there is a pattern. Some numbers have not been drawn for more than a year, and other numbers are drawn almost weekly.

Prior to the changes, I think there was 149 million possible combinations using the number set they had. If you purchased 149 million tickets, you would win. That was fine for small lotteries of 149M and under.

A friend who is not a scientist, claimed that the balls are all equal in weight. The balls may be equal in pounds or ounces, but they are not molecularly identical.

 

If I complete steps 1-4, is the winning the lotto #5? :smileylol:

[ogirly4016]

 

"The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only resason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made their living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everybody in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being nonexistent people." - George Orwell, 1984

 

I don't play the lottery, but if you do best of luck...

[Marybeth Cooperstone]

To put it simply:

A state pays a private company to design a lottery game, print the tickets, design the advertising, etc. The state pays for the advertising.

Tickets are sold, the state collects the money.

 

• Some of the money collected goes to the private company for the work listed above.
• Some of the money goes to the payout.
• The rest of the money goes to the state, which claims to use it for some popular purpose such as education.

The amount used to describe the winnings is the total amount of a payout spread over many years. For example, $1 million/yr for 20 years would be decribed as $20 million. This ignores the time. Given a reasonable "discount rate" - same as interest rate, the real "present value" of the payout would be much less.

Of course, income taxes to the federal and maybe to the state are due.

It would be better to invest your money in a bank account, stocks, or some other investment. But it can be more exciting to buy a lottery ticket and then dream of winning.

Marybeth

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[Knowl Paine]

There are 104 drawings per year. Matching 4 numbers pays 10K,  5 numbers is 250K,  you don't need to win the jackpot.

I think that if a person can control themselves, $104 per year is not a lot to spend, plus you get a chance to dream a little.

[Panther Miklos]

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Kenbro Utu wrote:

In Texas, a majority of the profits from the lottery program go to directly to public education.  Not sure of other states.

Edit to add:  Also this particular lottery is spread across 40 some states, individual state lotteries don't get that high that I am aware of.  You can take an annuity or a cash sum.  The cash sum for that amount I think is 397 million or some odd.  Of course, for the annuity payments, you get the full sum eventually (or at least your estate does if you die). I can't recall the longevity of the annuity at the moment.  

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Ah, the great Texas pipe-dream (not a put down to you Kenbro) of funneling lottery monies to the education fund.  The state as a whole fell for that one.  The last breakdown I recall seeing was something along the lines of 62% goes to winner payouts, 10% goes to the company running the lottery and whatever is left does indeed go into the education pot.  However, when one digs a little deeper, they'll see that any unclaimed prizes (whether lotto or scratch off) is dumped into the infamous state general fund, not into the education fund.  That's a load of money that some of us believe should have gone into education... not into the Governors play money account.  Here's one story I could find in a quick search...

"It's the unclaimed prize money. In fiscal year 2010, it added up to almost $87 million. Local 2 Investigates found $10 million of that goes to the trauma center at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, but the rest goes back to the state's general fund."   Story

In the end, each individual will either take the lottery chance or not.  I don't believe most take into consideration the ins and outs of who/what/where/when/why... they just want that money. :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

 

 

[Marybeth Cooperstone]

One problem in many states: they claim that a certain portion of the money goes for education. However, often the amount of the "general fund" - or normal tax money - that is spent on education is reduced. So education does not get any additional money. For example, say that a state normally appropriates $5 Billion to education from general revenues. Then they start a lottery that will provide $500 Million to education. Soon the appropriation from general revenues to education drops to $4.5 Billion, so that education get $5 Billion, just as before the lottery. There is $500 Million additional in the general fund, which may go to other expenditures or to a reduction in taxes.

Supporters of the lottery can say that the purchase of lottery tickets is voluntary, so that however the money is used, the money was given voluntarily as opposed to involuntary taxation.

Opponents say that the lottery is a tax on people who don't know math and the long odds of winning, and don't understand that they would be better off putting the money in the bank, even at low interest rates.

Then there is the value of having the dream of winning (about all you are likely to get is a dream) and having your life changed.

Marybeth

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