Powerball jackpot boosted again to $550M (could be increased again as the drawing nears)
Source: AP-EXCITE
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The record Powerball jackpot just keeps rising. It now stands at $550 million after officials say brisk sales keep driving up the payout amount.
The jackpot was boosted to $500 million on Tuesday and raised again Wednesday morning to $550 million.
A winner taking the cash option would get $360.2 million before taxes.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121128/DA2R4HHO0.html
tinrobot
(10,916 posts)Which means a 99.99999999999% chance that most people will lose.
Save your money.
NICO9000
(970 posts)I guess it might be a laugh to throw a buck at it.
IDoMath
(404 posts)If you don't buy a ticket you can't win.
If you buy 1 ticket you chances rise from 0 to 1 in 175M. It's an infinitesimal chance but you've increased your odds by an inifinite amount. (1/0)
If you buy 2 tickets you only increase your chances by a factor of 2.
If you buy 3 tickets you only increase your chances by a factor of 1.5.
Every additional ticket is a diminishing return.
So, only buy 1.
-OR-
buy all 175,000,000 variations. With a cash payoff of $361M that's a guaranteed profit $186M.
Anybody got $175M I can borrow?
Thav
(946 posts)Like 55 (56? I don't remember how many powerballs there are) $200,000 prizes (5 white balls, no powerball).
But someone else could get the #'s right too. So only if you're the only one would this be worth it.
KewlKat
(5,624 posts)with that kind of payout if you had the money and bought each combination, sure winner and sure profit!
sofa king
(10,857 posts)... but more than being hit by a meteorite.
Allow me to take this opportunity to say how much I dislike the lottery. It lures in the most obsessive-compulsive people and inevitably ruins their finances, has them wasting hours of my time every week, blocking paying customers, getting annoyed at me for not understanding the detailed arcana of their chosen vice, and otherwise gumming up the works of a small store.
Its profit margin is so minimal that I personally am convinced that lottery-runs like these actually depress sales of retail goods. Every week, I see gambling addicts denying candy for their kids so that they can buy another scratch-off or ticket. The store owners make more off of a single pack of gum than they do from five minutes' worth of Pick 4 printouts.
During runs like this, the lotto-loons congregate so thickly that other paying customers simply start to leave their purchases behind and walk out.
And, as a Virginian, I cannot help but note that every goddamned penny of those Powerball receipts was supposed to go directly to the education budget, but they do not, and college tuition rates continue to rise as a result. So it's keeping Virginians stupid, too.
I hate to say this, but I now feel that state-sponsored gambling is bad for our society. I'm not going to try to take it away from you millions of addicts, but I'm watching your fortunes decline with much sadness.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)Each ticket costs $2, so you'd need to shell out $350M. After taxes, the $361M goes down to roughly $250M. So the only thing you're guaranteed is to be out at least $100M.
If there are multiple winners, you're even more screwn.
Garbage in, garbage out
VWolf
(3,944 posts)coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)it a 'sure thing' (it is not), syndicates run by scumbags like Romney would be all up in it.
W T F
(1,148 posts)If it takes 6 seconds to fill out one lottery ticket card and scan the numbers into the computer...It will take 333 years to fill out and scan 175 million of them. By the time you finish this task, Money will not be able to solve your problems.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)That would certainly speed things up, but considering it draws them randomly, you'd have no way of knowing whether or not it picked all the combinations (ie, no repeats).
In fact, the probability that it would are exceedingly small - MUCH SMALLER than the probability of you winning on a single ticket.
Interesting thought experiment, however.
IDoMath
(404 posts)Sometime ago big investors tried to do something to buy up all the tickets. There was some mechanism in place that prevented it. If they could register a lotto computer and do it all electronically, it would be simple.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)W T F
(1,148 posts)550 million would only be worth half a million in today's dollars.
GoCubsGo
(32,088 posts)Headed out to buy it shortly. I'm almost certainly about to throw away two bucks, but I'll get a nice two mile round-trip walk out of it. So, not a complete waste. And I wouldn't mind winning the second or third prizes. I would be QUITE happy and satisfied, actually.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)Dakota Flint
(219 posts)coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)getting struck by lightning are higher, IIRC.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)At 175,000,000:1 odds, it would need to hit $1B to draw my attention.
loyalkydem
(1,678 posts)It would be funny if my one little 2.00 ticket winds up being the winner.....
Thav
(946 posts)I already have the winning numbers!
Debau2005
(1,916 posts)I do it for the fun. If I win, then YEAH...if not, it was fun to dream for a few minutes.
Atypical Liberal
(5,412 posts)I actually changed a friend's behavior by telling them this, as they never thought about it.
If you are going to buy a lottery ticket, buy only one ticket.
It seems counter-intuitive to some. It feels like, "Hey, if I buy ten tickets, or twenty, then I am ten or twenty times more likely to win!!!"
Yes, this is true. So instead of 1-in-75,000,000 odds of winning, your odds are now 10-in-75,000,000 or 20-in-75,000,000.
They are still infinitesimal.
But to you, and your personal finances, there is probably a huge, huge difference between spending one dollar and spending ten, or twenty dollars.
So if you want to blow a buck, hey, why not? It's the same price as a drink in a restaurant. It helps fund scholarships. Chip in your buck.
But don't go buying dozens of tickets thinking it is helping you. It isn't.
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)...my approach is to see the $2.00 as the equivalent of the change I find in the couch cushions that I otherwise would never no I had.
question everything
(47,534 posts)if, instead of having one humongous prize of $500 million they would have 500 prizes of $1 million. Or 50,000 prizes of $10,000.
What can one possibly do with $360 million?
Separation
(1,975 posts)I can think of quite a few things as most people do.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)There are $1M, $10K, $100, $7 and $4 ...
and the odds on all of them are completely stacked against you.
question everything
(47,534 posts)if you still keep one top prize of $500 million.
But I think (I am not a mathematician) that if you will build the game as a wider spread of prizes, eliminating the top one that the odds would improve. No?
GoCubsGo
(32,088 posts)When they doubled the price of the ticket, they doubled the sizes of the runner-up prizes.
RC
(25,592 posts)decreased the number of possible winners. They said that would increase the number of people wanting to buy tickets.
Ahhh, no, all that did was to decrease the numbers of possible winners, making winning something in the lottery that much harder.
With a limit of $1,000,000 prize for the winner, there could be 5 big winners this time. Buy two tickets, you might win twice. 2 million.
I guess Logic can't win out over greed. Either for the people running the lottery or the people buying tickets.
ElboRuum
(4,717 posts)Not having 360 million, I hadn't really thought about it much.
Hand me 360 million, and I'll guarantee every spare moment I have will be spent coming up with ideas.
qazplm
(3,626 posts)Or is it only sold at locations?
Panasonic
(2,921 posts)www.powerball.com for more info.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Jeez
Atypical Liberal
(5,412 posts)Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Panasonic
(2,921 posts)tax-free, I think.
I think it has been done before with lottery winnings.
Soon I will go get one myself... and one for my dad.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)I'm just an under-monied asshole now.