I don’t play the lottery because there is no way in hell I would like winning anything over 1 million. More than likely a winner of hundreds of millions would have to move, change their identity and everything else that comes with that. You’d constantly have to worry about your own safety as well as that of your family. And for me having any luxury item isn’t any fun because you didn’t have to wait in anticipation for the “joy” it would bring while you saved for it.
Money can't buy you love, happiness, or class.
@flga-2-2
Indeed. In South Carolina, winners can remain anonymous, but not in NC. The border is maybe 90 miles from me, so I don't go there, but then, I'm not going to win anyway.
The money is mind-boggling. No question that the winner would have to hire 24-7 armed security and would probably have to move to another state.
I would create a foundation and try to give it all away save for maybe $5 million or so to keep me going without worrying about money.
@mathteacher I don't know what else he taught that was wrong but the house edge of 1.36% in craps on the don't pass line is the smallest of the table games. Unless you can cunt cards in Blackjack that is.
oops I left out the o in count
The old boy may have been mistaken on his game, but that was in 1975, well before the time of triple zeroes.
If the proper game is craps, then good, his reasoning remains the same.
Thanks for the correction.
I hope there were some winners here. I matched the same number that I matched in the previous drawing, 45, the year my late wife and I were born.
@FL/GA may be on the right track. This thing may get to $2 billion and he won't have wasted all of those $2 bills he's been saving.
The one certain thing I know is that I did not win. Didn't buy a ticket.
Didn't buy a ticket.
It's your lucky day! You still have a chance! Nobody won! Tuesdays Jack-pot will be $1.6b
You will not win, if you do not play...
Good luck to all y'all!!!
Perhaps I can get the little woman to trot into town to buy a ticket. I'll know she won if I get divorce papers served on me.
I knew of a guy who found out he won the Lotto and called home to tell his wife.
He said, "Honey, I won the Lotto. Start packing!"
She asked, "Hot weather or cold?"
He said, "I don't care. Just be gone by the time I get home."
The MegaMillions jackpot is $1.25 billion, with a $625.3 million lump sum. Despite the 1/302,575,350 odds, the expected value is $2.06 per $2.00 ticket, suggesting it's statistically rational to buy, though lottery play is generally considered imprudent.
If and only if you could play millions of times at those odds then you should play.
The odds of coming out ahead on a given play are strongly against you. Look at each outcome one at a time and ask the odds are of the prize occurring in 1 or the first N plays.
The odds of winning in the limit of large number N of plays are what you computed.
Statistically I might have a better chance of winning if I buy a million tickets versus only 1, but in my head the odds are basically the same.
If I do buy tickets I buy 2 because I feel like I'm doubling my miniscule chances of winning, but anymore than that and I get a very sharp sense of diminishing returns. This is probably economic utility at work and not anything based on logic or statistics.
Where would one store over $600 million, at least temporarily, before being able to spend some of it?
Little problems that we poor people don't lose sleep over.
Where would one store over $600 million, at least temporarily, before being able to spend some of it?
I've often wondered this myself.
This is why you hire an expert...
You can store it at my place.
With MegaMillions at $1.25 billion and a $625.3 million lump sum, the probability of winning is 1/302,575,350. The expected value, calculated as amount times probability, is $2.06, suggesting that a $2.00 ticket is underpriced for the potential jackpot.
