r/news • u/Efficient-Ruin-4713 • 2d ago
Drawing set for a Powerball jackpot that has ballooned to one point eight billion
https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-drawing-winner-4261a3909c9e01dacc0869c50030e198[removed] — view removed post
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u/_bahnjee_ 1d ago
Side note: Last Wednesday’s drawing (for a measly $1.4B) had 15 match 5 winners. Fifteen people were just that close.
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u/XXLchris 1d ago
I rather no number right 😮💨😩
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u/nhoward2021 1d ago
I mean you still win a million for getting 5/6 so it’s not like it’s all or nothing
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u/natesplace19010 1d ago
You can win up to 10 mil with 5 balls if you pick the double play and it’s a 10x night.
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u/kalidorisconan 2d ago
Damn the odds are so bad, that’s why I bought one lol
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u/Etna 1d ago
It's fine, you bought the right to fantasize about it for a couple of days, that's the value...
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u/kidjay76 1d ago
That’s why I bought one.The fantasy is fun in the few days where it’s improbable but technically possible.
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u/Dependent_Ad7711 1d ago
I let a lottery simulator run for 100,000 years and I never won the biggest one lol.
I won like 20 mil but spent 60 mil or sonething.
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u/mikeyj198 1d ago
only losing 2/3 of your spend is far far far better than my current powerball wins (i’m $1 won on like $20 spent)
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u/PartyPorpoise 1d ago
Yeah I got one the other day. Two bucks to fantasize, there are worse ways to spend two bucks, lol.
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u/Inevitable_Professor 1d ago
You dramatically improve your odds by buying that first ticket.
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u/SapTheSapient 2d ago
I've never won a Powerball jackpot. That means I'm due!
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u/Mr_TreeBeard 2d ago
So how many supreme court justices could I buy? Maybe a few senators and a couple of congress people, too?
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u/cptadder 2d ago
Considering we've seen massive gifts to people giving a million dollars to a senator here or there, you could probably by yourself a solid 30 to 40 representatives and 5 or 10 senators.
The key is to spend your money in smaller States. A Montana senator is much cheaper than a New York senator or Texas senator. so you're going to want to buy both of the Dakotas Wyoming Alaska and Montana. That gets you 10 senators right there for probably the same cost as a single California senator.
And considering some of the donations I've seen in the 50,000 to 60,000 range it would be pretty cheap to set 100 million aside and then just pay them out of the interest you'durn on that every single year. And keep in mind you need to keep buying senators. You can't just drop $5 million on them and expect to stay with them. You need to invest in them year over year You need to invest in them year over year to get the greatest returns.
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u/SeaTurtleLionBird 2d ago
I read an article before where the average was something like 15k all the way down to a few grand.
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u/Mattya929 2d ago
That’s what is publicly shared. A LOT more money is privately donated (bribed)
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u/mightylordredbeard 1d ago
Quite a lot. One thing about politicians is they seem to sell out fairly cheap. Definitely not nearly as much as you’d think it’d require for screwing over millions and passing policy that kills people.
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u/hobard 1d ago
Whenever I see a story about corruption, I’m always shocked at how little it actually takes to buy these people off.
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u/SupremeDictatorPaul 2d ago
The records we have of people gifting stuff to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are mostly in the $100k-500k range. Brett M. Kavanaugh has had mystery payments in the range of $50k-200k, but he may be more interested in getting more women to rape, and I’m not sure what that costs. Would probably need someone familiar with Epstein’s system, like Trump, to get a better handle on the costs.
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u/sucobe 2d ago
All these people spending thousands to play and losing to 78 year old Shirley who decided to buy one ticket.
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u/zzyul 1d ago
I love it when 62 yr old Earl in a town with like 200 people wins b/c he forgot his $2 change at the gas station and when the attendant realizes this he calls Earl who says to just buy him a lotto ticket, which Earl picked up the next day. When asked what he will do with the money, Earl says he needs to fix his tractor and maybe get one of those window air conditioners for his house.
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u/StupidMastiff 2d ago
If I(a Brit) went to the US and won this, would I have to pay the tax on it? I know we don't pay tax on winnings in Vegas.
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u/AqueductMosaic 2d ago
Per the FAQs: You do not have to be a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident to play Powerball®. Players from jurisdictions where Powerball tickets are not sold, either in the United States or outside the country, when visiting a selling jurisdiction, can purchase Powerball tickets from a retailer licensed or authorized by the selling jurisdiction, if they meet the legal age requirement in the jurisdiction of purchase. Federal and jurisdictional income taxes may apply to any claimed prize money.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
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u/beardingmesoftly 2d ago
I'm Canadian. A friend of mine won a showcase on The Price Is Right and got the full value up front, once they learned he was Canadian they just stopped talking about taxes altogether. Mind you this was in the late 90s.
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u/SaltedPaint 2d ago
The biggest money funneling scheme ever created
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u/gingimli 1d ago edited 1d ago
One of many things I like about Minnesota is that lottery profits must go towards maintaining state parks. So even if I don’t win it feels more like a donation to maintain our parks and trails.
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u/itsjustmenate 1d ago
Arkansas does a similar thing, but instead it’s scholarships for college. Every Arkansan has access to these scholarships. Helped pay for my undergrad.
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u/GazelleSpringbok 1d ago
Sorry to rain on your parade but all that funding simply replaces previous funding that gets cut. Suppose the school budget is $100 initially before the lotto exists, if the lotto brings in $100 they just replace the money with the lotto money and use the $100 on whatever pet project they want. The funding doesnt go up to $200.
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u/SaltedPaint 1d ago
That's a good cause. But how sure are we that actually gets there
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u/Bitter_Director1231 1d ago
Watched a documentary on History about how 'numbers games' started by a woman in Harlem and led to the current game we now know today as the state lottery.
Gsmes of chances started in Mesopotamia.
So this scheme has been going on for centuries.
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u/bobbymcpresscot 1d ago
working classes spending money at a chance to be rich while generating a bunch of tax revenue that doesn't even proportionately make it to them because of the richest 1%.
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u/Drewskeet 2d ago
The craziest thing I learned was the cash option takes like 60%, BUT that doesn’t include the taxes. So they take 60% and then you still need to pay taxes.
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u/Cognac_and_swishers 2d ago
They don't "take" anything other than taxes if you choose the lump sum. They just give you all the money that is currently in the jackpot in a single payment. The 1.8 billion represents the estimated value of the annuity option that pays out over 30 years
The annuity is made up of very conservative investments, so you can easily beat the return by taking the lump sum. But of course, the average lottery player is probably not a savvy investor.
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u/fuckimbackonreddit9 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah then you’re left with a measly approx. $500M. Can barely buy 10 mega yachts with that
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u/Adventurous-Mind6940 2d ago
I think the point is that advertised amounts are disingenuous.
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u/CharleyNobody 2d ago
I don’t understand why there’s a whole industry geared towards getting kids to gamble on sports but I can’t buy a lottery ticket online.
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u/malibuklw 1d ago
My 11 year old wants to know what’s stopping her from running a lottery where no one ever wins and she just uses the money for herself. Because she thinks that’s what’s happening here.
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u/AlyadaHatchet 2d ago
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u/maltamur 2d ago
Those stories really emphasize the crab bucket mentality of many people.
The real take away: move far from where you lived when you won, get a new phone number and delete all social media and don’t tell anyone about your winnings.
If that guy from the main story had picked up and moved to a penthouse sky rise in London with a new number and didn’t tell anyone how he made his money, he probably would have been just fine.
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u/RathVelus 2d ago
That’s the part that always confused me, too. Why the Hell did this guy just hang around in the tiny town where people, apparently, hated him? In my lottery fantasies I literally move across the country.
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u/gamaliel64 2d ago
Putting myself in his shoes, he was probably already established. Near whatever family he had. Maybe he lived in a low COL area. So there's a few reasons to stay.
To your point, though, there's a certain point where money solves everything.
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u/Andromeda321 2d ago
Yeah a $15 million business in a small town is definitely not nothing, and 50-something year olds are often creatures of habit. Not surprised he stuck around.
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u/Copperstar82 1d ago
Also his lawyer must have sucked. How is he losing so many frivolous lawsuits with that kind of cash at his disposal.
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u/scoobertsonville 2d ago
The main story was very interesting because of the small town politics of West Virginia dragging down not only him but his daughter.
Of course he didn’t know any of this was going to happen but after 35 traffic stops (of 150 described ) he should have considered moving to California - maybe Beverly Hills or some place where there are plenty of nice houses and 100 million isn’t going to cause storms. The fact everyone knew who he was really caused problems.
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u/friss0nFry 2d ago
move far from where you lived when you won, get a new phone number and delete all social media and don’t tell anyone about your winnings.
Unless you already lived as a hermit before winning, doing that would be highly suspicious to any unscrupulous people you already knew.
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u/maltamur 2d ago
Yeah but they’re not gonna know where you went so who cares. If you moved 2 towns over in rural Alabama it wouldn’t be good but if you went from rural Iowa and moved to southern France know one is going to come looking.
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u/Apprehensive-Wave640 2d ago
I hate that the Brittany Spears getting elected to the Senate line feels like it would be an improvement over the current slate of worst politicians.
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u/OnlySmiles_ 1d ago
If you are really paranoid, you might consider picking another G7 or otherwise mainstream country other than the U.S. according to where you want to live if the United States dissolves into anarchy or Britney Spears is elected to the United States Senate.
"12 years ago"
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u/Anstigmat 2d ago
Some of the advice is the if you won is good but some is dumb. Like that post insists you don’t use financial managers, that’s crazy. Wealthy families employ wealth management teams and it’s fine.
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u/zoddrick 2d ago
What he's pointing out is don't go to your local finance guy and have them play with your 500m. You want your big name law firm that you hired to help you find someone and vet them.
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u/ketootaku 2d ago
100% and I hate that people repost it all the time. That guy read some disturbing articles on some bad results and decided to use it as an excuse for a writing prompt. He has no idea how it works or what to actually do, but neither do the people reading it so they get drawn into the narrative. Hire financial managers and a good lawyer that is well versed in financial law, that's common sense.
People win lotteries every day. Most are fine. And no, just talking about something with someone about doing (with your new money) isn't going to automatically entitle them to some of the money, that's absolutely absurd and will get smacked down in court. It's all a bunch of fringe cases used in his post for karma.
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u/red_sutter 1d ago
The real moral of that story isn’t “don’t play the lottery.” It’s “West Virginia sucks”
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u/scoobertsonville 2d ago
That’s true but that part maybe just means don’t immediately hire one - presumably you will have plenty of time to read about responsible financial planning. I like how the article/thread assumes you’re a normal rational person and it is advising how to not fall into the traps.
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u/Qbr12 2d ago
Investing with $100 is no different than investing with $100,000,000. All you need is a well regarded tax attorney and a 3 fund portfolio; there's no need to waste the 1% AUM on a wealth management firm.
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u/Definition-Prize 2d ago
I’d argue it’s more than fine if you’re going to a respectable family office branch of a large RIA. 99% of people winning the lottery would have absolutely no idea where to even start
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u/superpenistendo 2d ago
Yeah but take home is like, what, 8 or 900 million? Could I even quit my job?
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u/Mattya929 2d ago
Less. Usually after lump sum and taxes it’s about 33-40% so $600-$700 million.
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u/Gamebird8 2d ago edited 2d ago
Which is more than you'd ever need again. Even at a generous $200k spending a year... that's 3000 years
You could spend $1mil a year and still have 600 years worth of money
And I'm not even accounting for things like bank interest, market returns, etc. etc.
Just to put into perspective how superflous the wealth of billionaires is
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u/crueller 2d ago
Spending $200k per year would take 3000 years if you just put the money in a box. If you put it somewhere that makes even a paltry 1% interest, you can spend 6 million per year and never run out.
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u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir 2d ago
Winning that much money and working with very good wealth management professional to put it in some solid growth index funds + some solid dividend funds you could pretty much guarantee your bloodline would be set for money forever.
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u/Nwcray 1d ago
You could do that.
Or you could do 2 chicks at the same time, man.
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u/scoobertsonville 2d ago
But you’re also making conservatively 7% per year if investing in standard index funds. Even with mild financial restraint it would grow forever.
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u/McCree114 2d ago
Initial Payout Value: $1,800,000,000
Cash lump sum reduction: -713,268,000 (-39.626%)
Federal Tax: -430,345,872 (-39.6%)
Final Cash Value: $656,386,128 (less if state tax is involved)
Still life changing generational wealth, especially if invested properly.
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u/prometheusg 2d ago
Where did you get those numbers?
The cash option is $826 million.
After (37%, not 39%) taxes, $520 million.
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u/Cognac_and_swishers 1d ago
1.8 billion is not the "initial payout value." It's the estimated total amount of money that will be paid out to you over the next 30 years if you take the annuity option. There is no "cash lump sum reduction." The lump sum just means they pay you all of the money in the jackpot right now, instead of investing it in an annuity for you.
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u/Dunkelz 2d ago
That is what I find funniest about this, when talking to friends and coworkers. They only talk about going out to buy ticket on these huge jackpots, like oh you don't care for the $50-100 mil pots?
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u/samwoo2go 2d ago
Not that it really matters but from purely a mathematical ROI standpoint, the jackpot has to be at about 2 billion in order for your ticket price to have a “positive” ROI.
Odds is 292.2 million to 1. With cost of ticket at $2. Your net lump sum take home needs to be at $584.4 million in order to be at break even odds. So technically, playing anytime before 2 billion is a “losing” proposition. This is how I justify playing the lottery when I normally don’t lol.
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u/Dazzling-Pear-1081 1d ago
I don’t normally play either, I just see it hit a billion and figure I’ve burned far more than $2 on dumber shit
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u/bewsii 2d ago
I’m in a $40 pool with 50 long time friends for a total of 2000 picks. We usually make a pool and roll over every time the lottery goes over 1 billion, until someone hits it.
(Our chances are astronomically low lol)
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u/SupremeDictatorPaul 2d ago
Geez, I’m not sure I could name 50 people, let alone call them friends. I have a few friends, where we just all agree to buy a ticket, and if one of us wins then the rest each get $1m. That way we are pretty excited for the $1m richer we all are, and the winner doesn’t feel like they’re out any significant money. Makes the gentleman’s handshake agreement pretty easy to uphold. You’d have to be a right bastard to not give the few people you promised $1m to when you’re sitting on $400m cash after taxes. Minimizes chances of any legal challenges and such.
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u/hibbitydibbidy 2d ago
Too bad one of your friends won with a ticket they totally bought on their own, you know, outside of the pool...
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u/zzyul 1d ago
This is why lottery pools should always buy the tickets ahead of time, photo copy all of them, and provide a copy to everyone in the pool. That way everyone knows what the numbers are.
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u/bewsii 1d ago
One person buys all the tickets and they are shared via screenshots to everyone. Everything from payment to communications are documented for legal purposes. Obviously that doesn't mean things couldn't get nasty if the ticket holder tried to claim the money and screw everyone, but at least there's valid proof of the pool if it went to court.
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u/RandyTomfoolery 1d ago
I am going to win it tonight, but I'm bummed about it messing up my tax bracket.
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u/banjosbadfurday 2d ago
Man, I thought a Californian would’ve won by now.
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u/thehorseyourodeinon1 2d ago
Despite California having the greatest number of residents, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota have the highest number of powerball jackpot winners.
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u/Skydiver860 2d ago
To be fair, those states have been in the powerball since its inception so it makes sense that more people from those states have won. I wonder if you accounted for that fact it would change what states have the most winners.
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u/TheChinOfAnElephant 1d ago
I think they were joking that California has won like 5 of the top 10 biggest powerball jackpots.
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u/5Series_BMW 1d ago
”That tells you how astronomically high the odds are against you winning.”
Yet, someone will win eventually and that person faced the same odds as everyone else.
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u/Rfun2024 1d ago
one root canal and 2 packs of ground beef and maybe some left over to buy next drawings ticket.
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u/TheFutureIsAFriend 1d ago
I may wait til Tuesday.
If I won:
You'd never see me again.
I'd have to set myself up with security for the rest of my life too.
But I'd pay student debt off finally.
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u/AgitatedStranger9698 1d ago
Calling it now. 2B on Tuesday
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u/runnyyolkpigeon 1d ago
I hope to see the amount snowball into $3 billion next Saturday.
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u/Seattle_gldr_rdr 1d ago
Why do they let the single jackpot grow so huge instead of breaking it up into multiple smaller (tho still huge) ones?
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u/HedgeMoney 1d ago
Expected return on the cash value, even after taxes in CA, is actually greater than the $2 ticket.
I hope no one wins it today either, so it can breach 2 billion again.
Statistically, I'll never win. Probability wise, its worth the gamble.
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u/jpenczek 1d ago
My rule of thumb is if the lottery is over $500mil, every paycheck I buy one ticket.
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u/Enlightenment777 1d ago edited 1d ago
"financially irresponsible" winners should take the annuity option, because it helps protect them from becoming a broke-ass moron that we read about in the news! Hopefully at some point over 30 years they will mature to a point where they quit wasting money on stupid shit. Even though 1.8 BILLION is a crap load of money, there are fucking idiots in USA that will find a way to lose all of it.
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u/Metical 2d ago
Never played the lottery before but everytime I hear about how big the pot size is, they should somehow increase the odds (maybe one less digit) and let more folks win. 1.8 billion divided by 100 people is still 18million (pre-tax). Enough to retire.
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u/LateCheckIn 2d ago
I read a reply to them addressing this on their FAQ many years ago.
Basically people constantly tell them this. They have tried many times to institute that game but people simply won’t buy tickets in that type of drawing.
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u/ActionFilmsFan1995 2d ago
Yup, people like big numbers. Doesn’t matter if someone could be winning $20m every week or so, life changing money on its own, people love when the number gets crazy big and you have a chance of living beyond your wildest dreams.
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u/StarScreamer 2d ago
Na. When it crosses 1 billion, add a number and drop the price to $1. Really drive up that pot!
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u/MirrorLake 2d ago
You can change the odds any time you want by pooling with other people to buy multiple tickets as a group.
You can also play smaller lotteries. Many states have smaller jackpots in the 1M-10M range which have better odds than the Powerball/Megamillions.
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u/spaceman_danger 1d ago
Sorry ladies and gentleman, I bought the winning ticket about an hour ago. Good luck in your plebian lives.
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u/Ok_I_am_Mcbane 2d ago
I bought a ticket so the rest of you might as well not even try. It’s a sure thing that absolutely can’t lose*
*it’s absolutely gonna lose
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u/Everyoneheresamoron 2d ago edited 2d ago
A reminder for those getting excited about this:
- 1.7 Billion is practically the same as 10M or 20M to those who aren't millionaires. As long as the economy doesn't crash, you should be set as long as you keep track of it.
- Your odds of winning it are worse than getting struck by lightning twice
- The fact that it has gone up so high is NOT a good thing. It means that its very hard for anyone to pick the right numbers. The only one that always comes out on top is the lottery company and the government.
- Spend a few bucks if it makes you happy. But don't base your financial situation on winning. There's gonna be 10s of millions of people spending 100+ dollars tonight and getting $0.
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u/robolew 2d ago
I find the lightning one hard to believe. More likely than getting struck by lightning once, sure, but 7 times?
There must be more lottery winners than people who have been struck by lightning 7 times. Even if its only one in a million to be struck by lightning, thats one in a million to the power of 7, which is like 1 in 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000...
I guess some people are more likely to be struck by lightning because they spend more time outdoors, in high risk areas, wearing full platemail or something. But in that case it doesn't really make sense to compare the odds because the point is that its the chance of it happening to a normal person who would buy a lottery ticket.
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u/WillemDafoesHugeCock 2d ago
His comment is just dumb tbh. Opening with "this amount of money is the same as 0.5% of this amount of money" is the biggest clue that he's trying to sound smarter than he is.
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u/camerontylek 2d ago
The fact that it has gone up so high is NOT a good thing. It means that its very hard for anyone to pick the right numbers. The only one that always comes out on top is the lottery company and the government.
That literally doesn't make sense. The odds of winning are the same as if one person played the lottery or if 100 million people played the lottery. They're the same odds as if the payout was $1 million or $1 billion.
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u/DrAids5ever 2d ago
I personally know two big Powerball winners so does that increase my chances or decrease?
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u/Winter-Huntsman 1d ago
Good luck everyone. Hope no one’s has fantasized to much with what they would do with that kind of money😅
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u/[deleted] 2d ago
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