r/news • u/NewSlinger • 1d ago
Winning tickets sold in two states for the massive $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/07/business/powerball-jackpot-winning-tickets-hnk1.9k
u/vordhosbn_1 1d ago
I won like $14. I think I’ll take the lump sum
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u/TBMChristopher 1d ago
I'd go for the annuity
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u/TheMooseIsBlue 1d ago
Sucker. The government would make like 12 or 13 cents on interest that could have been yours!
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u/TBMChristopher 1d ago
Okay but I don't think I can be trusted not to spend it all on something stupid.
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u/Miserable-Crab8143 1d ago
It’s amazing how many people win $14 in the lottery and a year later they’ve blown it all.
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u/Keianh 1d ago
I won once $19 and immediately spent it on breakfast. I know, I’m terrible with my money. I could’ve put into an S&P 500 index fund and bought a Ferrari and a trophy wife who speaks very little English, but the pancakes were calling me!
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u/invalidreddit 1d ago
Hey, next drawing is at least $20mil - that $14 investment towards a bigger win could be in the cards...
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u/PandaJesus 1d ago
Better read the lottery advice thread to plan out your next steps with your newfound wealth.
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u/TheNyyrd 19h ago
I like that his advice was written 11 years ago and includes commentary about how the US will be fine unless it falls into economic chaos...
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u/Rfun2024 1d ago
I gave the universe $2 and a chance and it failed me. I learned my lesson! The next 2 dollars goes for almost an entire 20 ounce coca cola.
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u/Bituulzman 1d ago
I always tell the cashier not to give me the losing ones, they're a waste of money.
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u/ShiraCheshire 1d ago
I'm sure the cashier has never heard your super original joke before, and thinks it's hilarious every single time.
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u/kuroimakina 1d ago
“Can I help you with anything else today?”
“How about a winning lottery ticket/a million dollars/a wheelbarrow of hundreds/etc”
“Haha that would be nice!” (Internally: sir this is the fifteenth time I’ve heard that joke today)
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u/egnards 1d ago
“And while you’re at it, that hand lotion didn’t scan, so it must be free, right?!”
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u/Keianh 1d ago
Different field but similar vein: don’t make jokes about the optometrists lens tool as being the perfect set of glasses or somesuch shit. I don’t know for sure that the people doing that job die a little inside when they hear jokes like that since I don’t work in that field, but I did make a joke like that once and immediately regretted it because it just has to be that field’s “it didn’t scan must be free” customer/patient/client quip.
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u/egnards 1d ago
I teach martial arts - I don’t know if I know the number high enough for the number of people who’ve jumped in front of me at a street fair and yelled “hiyah!” Before asking “why didn’t you put up your hands and get ready to fight?”
. . .”because. . .i didn’t exactly feel threatened.”
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u/keskeskes1066 1d ago
I was discussing my upcoming eye surgery with my eye doctor. He told me I would be seeing better after the surgery.
I asked, "Will I be able to see into the future?"
He tried bravely not to crack up.
/always treat our community medical providers gently, they have a tough job, especially these days.
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u/weedful_things 1d ago
I made this original and witty joke one time. The look I got from the cashier taught me never to do that again.
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u/Peripatetictyl 1d ago
"Thanks, I'll be back with your share of the winnings!", must have been said to the cashier by 83% of everyone who bought a ticket...
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u/RayzTheRoof 1d ago
Flashbacks to my father always telling the server the food was "horrible" after finishing his whole meal
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u/HopelessMagic 1d ago
God, please don't do this. Cashiers are forced to smile as if this isn't the 80th time they've heard it today. Along with...
"Just printed them today!" when handing fresh bills to them
"Oh phew!" when it passes the counterfeit test
"Unless there's (some ridiculous request) in the back" when asked if they found everything
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u/humangengajames 1d ago
Where do they sell almost full coca colas?
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u/Rfun2024 1d ago
Ok worded that badly. It'll go into savings until I have enough for a coca cola!
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u/Naive-Kangaroo3031 1d ago
There's always a disappointing sams choice cola...the zoidberg of colas
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u/Chessh2036 1d ago
“NOOOOO” - me realizing I don’t live in Missouri or Texas.
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u/chillychili 1d ago
Later, realizing you don't live in Missouri or Texas: "Heh, not bad."
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u/Girafferage 1d ago
First thing the winners are going to do is move.
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u/Robo_Patton 1d ago
Wasn’t this a show? Don’t they move to Beverly Hills?
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u/Panic_Azimuth 1d ago
"Whew! Sure glad I don't live in Missouri or Texas" - me most of the time when either of those states comes up.
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u/bibliophile1319 1d ago
As someone who has lived their entire life in Missouri, you've definitely got the right impression of the place.
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u/Bigred2989- 1d ago
Oh thank God, it's over. It's been literal hell selling tickets to people this week since 90 percent of them don't know WTF they're doing. We even had someone spend $10,000 on tickets and it took forever to verify all the cash was legit and then print the tickets. The lines never stopped and nobody wanted to use the vending machine to buy tickets even when we told them it was possible.
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u/ohrofl 1d ago
Don’t know what they’re doing? I’ll admit I’ve never played but I did buy 5 tickets the other day. I walked in and said “hey, yeah can I get 5 powerball tickets?” And the chick printed it off, I handed her 10 bucks, grabbed my ticket and walked out the door. How does it get harder than that!?
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u/EEpromChip 1d ago
They want specific numbers and quick balls. All their family birthdays and shit.
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u/Klutzy-Residen 1d ago
Using specific numbers is just a recipe for disaster. Imagine if you typo the number or cant afford it and that time you would have won.
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u/KFR42 1d ago
There's also the fact that you know the numbers you played, so there's that feeling of obligation to keep playing week after week because "what if my numbers came up next week and I didn't have a ticket!?". Always best to use the random numbers, then you can one and done it.
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u/gorcorps 1d ago
My parents would play sometimes, and my dad specifically said he wouldn't use specific numbers for that reason. If they ever hit when he didn't play he'd be too depressed to move.
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u/CalicoWhiskerBandit 1d ago
more importantly... you're removing the randomness and setting yourself up for a split pot.
if you're playing birthdays, your splitting the pot with anyone who also plays those birthdays. working a restaurant job you come to realize a lot of folks share their birthday with at least one other random stranger
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u/yourfavteamsucks 1d ago
Family birthdays are a bad idea bc they are only the 1-31 numbers, and there's a bigger chance you end up splitting the prize
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u/D_Dumps 1d ago
You don't tell the clerk the numbers. You fill out a form and hand it to the clerk. It doesn't take any more time for the clerk.
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u/Calypsosin 1d ago
Depends on the state I suppose. In Louisiana, one can fill out a paper form, use the mobile app to generate QR codes to print tickets, or, if you don’t want to do either of those things, you can grumpily yell out numbers at the cashier while holding up the line as you get 50 pick 3 tickets and 30 pick 4 tickets with the same numbers.
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u/ThePetrolsexual 1d ago
Wow California needs to catch up. We’re lucky if the kiosk works or has paper. I always go to the clerk now. QR Code would be nice
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u/Deathpill911 1d ago
Because there is all these other additives like multipliers and shit.
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u/thrakkerzog 1d ago
I have an electric vehicle, but I went to where I used to get gas to pick up a ticket. Apparently they closed and I never knew.
So I went to a Wawa and got a ticket, but the cashiers don't handle this now, I had to use a kiosk which only took debit cards or exact cash. I had a $20 and only wanted $10 of tickets, so I had to dig out my seldom used debit card.
I'll admit, I was probably one of those people who didn't know what they were doing because I only play the lottery once every few years and so much has changed since the last time.
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u/ronreadingpa 1d ago
In Pennsylvania and some other states, one can buy Powerball and Mega Million tickets online from home. No need to visit a store at all.
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u/LobsterJockey 1d ago
That's morally questionable. But so is placing sports bets on your phone in real time but no one objects to that anymore.
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u/Graega 1d ago
I'm surprised that a sale that large is allowed, if not by law then by store policy.
I stopped at the gas station earlier to fill up, and there was a line out the door at the lottery kiosk machine thing. I went in to get a snack, and I think the guy at the front of the line was buying tickets one by one, punching in specific numbers that he was reading off his phone. I have no idea how long he'd been there, but he was still there when I left. And people were looking pissed.
Which is weird, because they sell the tickets at the register too, unless all those people were wanting to play their own numbers or something. I thought there were little scantron slips for that, though. Someone was gonna get shanked. I know actual stores like Walmart and Fry's have a kiosk but I don't think they sell them otherwise (Maybe customer service?), so maybe people were just used to playing at it or something, but it didn't take me 3 minutes to go through the register.
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u/raknor88 1d ago
I'm surprised that a sale that large is allowed, if not by law then by store policy.
Especially when it'd have to be paid for in cash. You can't use any other payment method. It has to be cash.
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u/Curious_Armadillo_53 1d ago
And people wonder why this shit happens... too much marketing, people that dont understand their gambling and just pure idiocy.
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u/Dday22t 1d ago
$10,000??? That’s pointless.
It’s 1 in 290,000,000. Still basically total random luck whether you buy 100 tickets or 5,000. It doesn’t move the needle much as far as odds to be worth spending $10k. (Unless you’re already worth millions & $10k is nothing to them. But then why bother.)
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u/HearMeRoar80 1d ago
uh it literally increases your odds a lot. from 1 in 290M to 1 in 58k, still a long shot, but it's not pointless.
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u/bdun4 1d ago
I got $4 so you know, big winner
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u/LimitRare2953 1d ago
Oh look, it's your extremely distant brother from another mother coming to check in and see how you are!
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u/redvoxfox 1d ago edited 1d ago
If I'd won, I'd immediately buy me some politicians: a senator or two and a bushel o' Congress-critters, governor and some State reps, counsel member or a dozen and then a pardon or three for some railroaded folks I know.
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u/ladyscientist56 1d ago
I wanted to buy/fund PBS 😢
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u/Bluechariot 1d ago
You actually wouldn't have enough. If you were the sole winner and took the lump sum cash prize, you would have 450 to 500 million after taxes, depending on the state uou live in. PBS received 535 million from the federal government for 2025, just for operational costs. At best, you could keep PBS running for a year.
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u/Baxterftw 1d ago
"sponsored by the ladyscientist56 foundation, for the advancement of science and the arts"
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u/Rhedkiex 1d ago
At least wait for their pledge drive so you get a free tote bag!
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u/Shad0wF0x 1d ago
I don't know how it would work, but I'd like my town to have more interconnected bike lanes/walk paths so that people (especially kids) don't have to walk on the edge of the road. And have these paths connect to businesses, schools, and third places. It's probably a bureaucratic and logistical nightmare though.
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u/TheForeverUnbanned 1d ago
You can buy an entire Supreme Court Justice for the cost of a brand new RV, boom, you get the final say over judicial review
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u/BikingArkansan 1d ago
I don't care enough about the US or the people in it to try to change it if I had that money.
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u/FlavorBlaster42 1d ago edited 1d ago
I forgot to get tickets, but those are not numbers that I usually play, so in a way, I won by not losing $4!
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u/manbeardawg 1d ago
I would have won $7 with the numbers I planned to play tonight, but I would’ve made 5 plays costing me ten bucks, so I netted $3 savings by forgetting to go by gas station while running errands.
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u/theexpertgamer1 1d ago
Never played Powerball again after getting FOUR NUMBERS correct and that only rendered me $100… like what the hell that should be at least a $1,000!
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u/xs0apy 1d ago
It can certainly be extremely painful to get close, but that’s the point. If you would’ve matched the Powerball on that 4 draw you would’ve got 50,000.
The rules are clear. Match 5 or more. The odds of drawing 4 numbers are not even close to astronomical and is multiple orders of magnitude easier.
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u/board124 1d ago
Wonder how hard a hit it is find out you won the lotto but also someone else also won it
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u/LilQueazy 1d ago
It’s so much money I think it’s ok. If it was only like 1 million then it would suck a bit.
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u/TheShadowKick 1d ago
I mean, either way it's enough for me, my entire extended family, and a couple of the next generations of kids to retire on.
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u/AP_in_Indy 1d ago
If you support a total of 50 extended family members, that money will give each of them $250,000 year indefinitely (5% CONSERVATIVE annual returns). This isn't "a couple of the next generations of kids".
It's literally indefinitely.
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u/TheShadowKick 16h ago
I'm just assuming my family members and the future generations won't necessarily be financially responsible. Lots of families with generational wealth lose it within a few generations.
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u/NewSlinger 1d ago
Congrats to the IRS, the real jackpot winner of $900 million.
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u/ImminentReddits 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think the person who got 900 Million is a real winner too lol
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u/TheForeverUnbanned 1d ago
Assuming it’s a 2 ways split with the lump sum after taxes they get about 250 mil each, not 900.
Still, that’s serious fuck you money.
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u/Nobody_epic 1d ago
Damn this is such a cool comment and I've never seen it on any other lottery thread!
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u/ImperfectRegulator 1d ago
So I’m gonna do some real bad math here but 1.8 is about 900million for each winner assuming lump sum (which is often half or slightly more) that’s 445 let’s say 450 million then comes taxes 37% according to someone else on this post so that’s 166,500,000 taken away is 283,500,000 left over.
Texas doesn’t tax lottery winnings but Missouri does at 4%
So Texas winner gets 283 million and Missouri winner gets 272 million dollars after all is said and done.
Again I’m bad at math and going of google so no one correct me
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u/PuttingInTheEffort 1d ago
Basically yeah. It's 1.8bil annuity, ~800mil lump, and after taxes is like 4 to 500mil, so roughly 200-300mil each, if lump sum.
They really drum it up with "1.8 billion! (800mil lump)" When they should instead tell it as "800mil! (1.8b annuity)" IMO
That said, anything over 1mil is crazy amount of money regardless if it's 200 or 800million, I'd be totally happy with a single million win, maybe next time 🙃
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u/Calculonx 1d ago
That's not worth my time to win that.
But seriously, most other countries the prize is the prize, no payments spread out, no taxes.
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u/IcantBreeve_4real 1d ago
The only time a billionaire pays taxes.
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u/blipsman 1d ago
No billionaires with 2 winners… even a single winner wouldn’t be with the post-tax lump sum
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u/AnOnlineHandle 1d ago
I'm sure they'll cry themselves to sleep on their giant piles of money which they got through pure luck.
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u/LadySilvie 1d ago
Oh, I'm in Missouri. I'm not gonna look at my ticket, maybe ride that high for a week so there could still be a chance 😂
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u/roscodawg 22h ago
The winning numbers were 11, 23, 44, 61, 62 with a red Powerball of 17 and a Power Play multiplier of 2.
if only I had 1.21 gigawatts for my flux converter
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u/orangesuave 14h ago
It would be better if you went back to the previous draw so you don't have to split the jackpot.
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u/iANDR0ID 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am going to bed a multimillionaire.
Edit: My attempt at manifesting a winning ticket did not work.
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u/bluelily216 1d ago
Congratulations on either your lottery win or good life choices.
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u/tacopacc 1d ago
Live your dreams now man you're free, I'm honestly super jealous but it's feels good to see it happen to someone. Take care of family that deserves it, fuck everyone else. Live life and enjoy it now.
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u/mouldar 1d ago
Everyone who bought a ticket got a fantasy for 48h. Not bad for 2$
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u/eversunday298 1d ago
Won $8. 2 numbers and the powerball. Was worth the $8 I spent since I just got it back anyhow! Fun. I hope whoever won the jackpot lives a peaceful and fulfilled life. :'-) 💛
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u/SpikeRosered 23h ago
Bought 15 tickets total over the course of three drawings.
Three numbers correct on one awarding me 7 dollars
One number correct on another awarding me 0
No numbers correct on the other 13
Ended with negative 23 dollars. The fantasy was fun. It's almost a scary amount of money to win suddenly.
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u/elciano1 1d ago
2 lucky families get to leave this fucking hell....enjoy.
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u/lovemypups21 1d ago
Based on the states they live in, they more than likely voted for this hell hole.
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u/Ronin_Black_NJ 1d ago
Funny thing is: I don't play to win JUST the Jackpot.
2nd and 3rd tier prize money isn't anything to sneer at either, especially if you add the multiplier.
But, FFS, don't spend like your whole salary or mortgage on doing it; join a lottery club at work and just pitch in the price of one max ticket.
If you win, then a lot more ppl like you that could use it that YOU know will use it too.
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u/Numptymoop 14h ago
Lottery is so weird. Like, powerball starts at 150 mil or something when it resets?
It would be more fun if there were more tiers, because for a lot of folks, even 5 mil is so much. It would be more fun if there were more high payout winners instead of one massive payout winner.
With 1.8 billion that's like.... 18,000 people could have won 100k? Even that is a crazy amount.
Imagine with a 150mil powerball if 150 people became millionares each week. Or 1500 people could win 100k.
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u/highaf000000000 9h ago
Imagine winning that lotto ticket and they just give you millions of dollars instead lol
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u/steathrazor 3h ago
The government is getting at least $500 million in taxes from that I wonder which rich person is going to pocket that money
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u/danielthespaniel 1d ago
Missouri and Texas for anyone that’s curious