Powerball - anyone really play it ?

It's a waste of money, IMO

 

Not the Powerball, but the CA lottery. My neighbor ~15 years ago asked me for advice on a new computer. He was running a program that analyzed all the past draws for patterns in the numbers, and it was running slow on his old computer. BS in my opinion, the numbers are random.

BUT, ~10 years ago he won $50,000. Program worked? Who knows.

 

Lotterry, Powerball and the rest. It took awhile, but the government figured out how to tax stupidity.

 

yep, odds are to high to play right now no matter what the jackpot is....Only Lottery I would play is the 6/40 game they have in Louisiana. Odds are way better and thye advertise the true cash value not the 30 year"might be worth" annuity amount.

 

I will be in the US in a couple of weeks, and i know the odds are crap, but i will buy a few tickets, because our jackpots here in Australia are really crap compared with those you have in the US.

 

I don't play it offen. The odds are pretty bad. But my list of winners that I know are- my electrician won 100k. My sister-in-laws first cuisin won 65mill (it might have been 56mill - I don't remember off hand), a doctor at my wife's hospital won 5 mill. A friend was doing construction work at the lottery head office and said that you would not believe how many people came in winning 6 figures or more. Still, I barely play.

 

I disagree that playing the lottery is always stupid. What's so much worse about spending $5 a week on the lottery versus $5 a week for beer, McDonalds, etc?

The jackpot odds for the Powerball is one in [(55 choose 5) times 42], and the Megamillions is one in [(56 choose 5) times 46]. The Powerball has slightly better odds at 1 in 146M, versus 1 in 175M for Megamillions. What this means is that as the jackpot approaches a certain amount, it becomes a stupid decision NOT to buy a lottery ticket. For instance with the Powerball if you assume a capital gains tax of 28% and that you would get 55% of the total annuity option if you take the current value option, at $337M you're getting even odds for each lottery play you purchase ($1 for each combo). At any amount greater than that you are pretty much being stupid for NOT buying a ticket. Granted, the jackpot rarely exceeds that, but recently the jackpots have been reaching stratmospheric amounts in shorter periods of time so I think we will more and more $300M+ jackpots in the coming years.

Also for many people the psychological effect of the prospect of winning millions is almost as rewarding as actually winning it. This is supported by the many people who have won who later state something to the effect that the winnings have made their life terrible; for those people, daydreaming about life as a multimillionaire proved to be far more entertaining than actually being a multimillionaire.

I believe that fiscal responsibilty is of course very important, but I'll buy a $5 ticket generally whenever the jackpot exceeds $250M. This happens maybe 10 times a year, so that's only $50 /year. I do agree that the people who work manufacturing jobs or other low income jobs who spend $30+ per week on tickets are being irresponsible.

 

How does this 6/40 game work?

Ok, I think I found it. It is the regular "Lotto" game where you pick 6 numbers out of 40. I never really paid attention to how it worked.

 

A lottery is just a tax on people who are bad at math.

But then, so are casinos (to a slightly lesser extent.)

I play the occasional blackjack table and I buy the (very) occasional lottery ticket, but for "entertainment value" only....

Bill

 

QP machines cut tickets with the same numbers over and over to greatly increase the chance that no one will win....A few months ago 88 QP tickets won the Cash 5 Jackpot games. I won 4of5 a long time ago and won $120 because someone won the big one, would have been around $500 if no one won the big one.

www.windowslotto.com A buddy of mine from Calabassas won $31 mil several years ago using this software....Dont see how it can help but he swears it does.


Louisiana game you just pick 6 from a field of 40 which is worth my dollar or 5 each drawing.

 

Forgot to add it was the old CA lotto game and he played 16 numbers for $50 or something like that.....

 

Its not; "if you don't play, you can't win" . Its "if you don't play, you can't loose".

 

Typically if the jackpot gets high enough the whole family chips in 1-2$ each and buys 3-6 tickets.

We know our chances are next to nothing, but it always brings up fun "what if" conversations.

So far a house in Hawaii and Colorado are on the list. A vintage Corvette for my dad, an Enzo for myself, and 355 Spyder for my mom. Also a small plane to support my Dad's hobby. The floor leading to my room will deffinetly get the 'Billy Jean' Michael Jackson light up treatment.

 

http://www.windowslotto.com/download.html

FRee 15 day trial....$96mil MM and $135 mil Powerball should be enough reasons for someone here to try...If you win I will take my cut in a F430-Blue/Beige...Thank YOU

 

How is he doing today? Only horror story I personally know of is the guy from Humble who won $31 mil and **** his self in the chest with a shotgun....Mostly from family problems that came about after the win. If I ever won I think I would keep it a secret and not change my lifestyle that much, just have a few more zeros on my acct.

Maybe take some super extravagant vacations around the world.

 

the absolute biggest jackpot weve ever had in Australia was $30m, but it usually never even cracks $10m.

lottery here is definately a mugs game.

 

we have mega millions here and when it gets in the nhood of $100m I'll play for the hell of it but I'm not a regular player.
I mean its a buck and its kinda' fun.

 

The thing about any lottery is that people actually win. That being said, I get a wild hair once or twice a year and buy maybe one $5 play...won $80 once.

 

tell it to the people that win.

I used to run the machine that dropped the numbers for the Cali lottery... fun stuff. Worked on the lottery TV shows.

Yer odds of winning are slim, yer odds of winning if you dont buy a ticket? None. You choose.

I'll take slim. The upshot is... someone DOES win, but they had to buy a ticket first.

$1 is nothing to buy a few dreams here and there.

if you think that $1 isnt worth it... take a dollar bill out, lay it on the table, now dream about alllllllllllll the things you can do with that $1. Fun huh? not really.

Now do the same with the $1 lottery ticket... lots of fun.


oh the other upside? the $ it puts into education. this is one of the FEW funding streams that the goverment gets that actually does go to the place is supposed to go to.

 

I only play when it's over $250 million. I don't want no stinkin' $20m or $30m. I don't bother to actually pick numbers. Unfortunately, I was a top student in probabilities & statistics in college.....damn!

I think the lottery actually gives millions of people hope that their perceived "dream" could become a reality. That in some way, their lives and their loved ones will change for the better. I've read articles that have paralleled lotteries to religion.

 

I get a kick out of the snobs who give all the reasons for not playing from the odds to taxation to blah, blah, blah. I play when it gets over 70 mil.

I took a college statistics class but you don't need that to know your chances are miniscule. But as has been mentioned SOMEBODY DOES win and EVERYBODY"S single ticket has an eqaul chance even if your number is 1,2,3,4,5 PB 6. Thats from my statistics class!

Play it and dream overnight. Screw all the other mental snob reasons and just tell everyone you don't own a TV. Then we'll be thoroughly impressed with your high brow outlook.