lottery

[gotsmack]

I did this example in my statics class. it turns out it would only be good to play if the pot is greater than 75 million (pretty shure it was 75)because of the wat the lotto pays you and taxes.

 

[StageLeft]

Well by definition you're doubling your personal odds if you buy more than one ticket. Instead of 1 in 200 million, you're now 2 in 200 million and 1.

and trimiv I dunno how much you spend on lottery tickets but most people who regularly buy lottery tickets could have a lot of real money if instead of throwing that money away over the years they'd invested it. Compound interest kicks ass.

You know if from the day you were born until the age of 65 you invested only a buck a day (yup only 365 a year) at 12% interest (a reasonable interest rate in a decent mutual fund) you'd be worth something like $6,000,000.

 

[trmiv]

Skoorb: I said maybe $15 a year on the lottery for me, and that's rare. The only time I play the lottery is if the jackpot is big, and I happen to think about it while in a store that sells them. I never go out specifically to buy some tickets. It's usually I'm at 7-11 buying something to drink, I see that it's $100 mil, so I say, what the hell, give me two tickets.

 

[StageLeft]

That could be worth $6500 after 35 years based on 12% and $15 deposited a year hehe

 

[gnognugs]

Skoorb

The lottery is actually a voluntary tax (profits go to the State).

Addictive taxation, what'll they think of next?

 

[Bignate603]

lottery had been over 150 million here in NY before.

 

[Zucchini]

Taxation across state/ country borders like in las vegas

 

[GammaRayX]

Hate to dash anyone's dreams, but there is a single winner of california megajackpot ($89 Million).

California Lottery Results

Then again if you happen to bought your ticket in the Bay Area, better double check your results.
More specificly, you you purchased your ticket at
7-ELEVEN 2232-14179B
633 MORAGA RD
MORAGA, CA 94556

Oh well, there goes my $5 I spent.

 

[KameLeon]

Damn SOB! $89 million Sh!tttt!!
I hope it isn't some old lady from SF, like before.. who didnt have a clue what to do with it! :Q

 

[GammaRayX]

Yeah, I know. $89 Million have to be that biggest jackpot to a single winner. I mean, there are jackpots bigger than this (eg $120mil to 10 winners = $12mil per winner), but nowhere near this to a single winner.

 

[silhoutte]

<< think i'm gunna invest. >>



i think this is an oximoron when used w/ the word lottery

 

[SJ]

If I'm not mistaken a single winner has won over $100million, I think it was either $102, or $110million. It was in one of those multi-state lottos.

 

[jehh]

The largest single winner was 341 Million in the PowerBall jackpot about three years ago.

The biggest lotto ever was in Japan, they ran a single lotto from 1990 to 2000 and it hit just over 1.3 Billion US. (something like 15 trillion yen) Something like 3,000 people won it however.

There have been lots of 100 million winners, at least a dozen by my count.

Jason

 

[GammaRayX]

Holy sh*t, $341mil. Anyways, I am not into lotto, so I won't know the history of it. Besides, a return of 55 cents on the dollar isn't exactly great way to gamble with money, and of which 25 cents goes to the jackpot. Hell, casino's worse return (the roulette wheel) is 96 cents on the dollar.

However, I play the lotto only for fun and for that 20 million to one shot and becoming rich. People who spent beyond their means buying lotto is just stupid.

Then again, that $341 million dollar winner must have been really happy. (That is if they don't become broke within a year like so many lotto winners )

 

[jehh]

What really stinks is the winner wouldn't know what to do with that much money if it killed them.

They lived in a converted trailer and drove 10 year old cars. In the interview (I had to watch it, yea I'm lame) the man (he was married) said he would buy a new truck and probably a mobile home as well. He said he would buy a house for his son and daughter so they would finally have a nice place to live.

341 million, that is VERY small thinking. I know this girl in California who won 21 million in the lotto, she owns three homes, a 37 foot boat, a half dozen cars, and still has millions left over invested. She also goes to Disney Land every week and has her own table there. What sucks is she is 19 years old. Wish I had that when I was 19.

Jason

 

[gnognugs]

Most people that play the lottery are ADDICTED to it. The poor are 100 times more likely to get addicted to stuff. That is why so many lottery winners are less fortunate.

Lawmakers justify lotteries, casinos etc, based on the tax revenue they will generate (primarily). However, this is seldom the case. Most lotteries are fraught with corruption and false accounting. Most of the tax revenue ends up in, you guessed it, politicians pockets.

Sadly, lotteries are just another way to TAKE from the poor and working class.

PS Gambling is MORE addictive than cocaine, heroin, or nicotene.

 

[GoldenTiger]

<< What really stinks is the winner wouldn't know what to do with that much money if it killed them. >>



Jehh

Sure, you COULD spend your $341 million all at once... but then you'd be broke and back in the gutter or normal life again. If you win, you should save and invest it so that it grows so much after a few years that your kids and family are cared for, and you don't have to worry too much about spending .

 

[jehh]

True, but you're missing the point. You can buy a 100 foot yahat, cruise the world, buy your own personal 747, buy a small island somewhere (and still have millions left), buying a new mobile home and a new truck is just small change when you're looking at such money.

Until you have had it, you just don't know what that much money really is, and what it is not. Bill Gates is the worlds wealthist man, but his money is pocket change compared to most counties. Exmaple... He bought a Mercedees car that was not legal in the US, something they only make in Europe. Since US laws require imported cars to be tested, he bought 6 of them, one to keep and 5 for the government to test. Each car cost $120,000. That is almost a million bucks, but no big deal to him. To you and I, it sounds silly. As for how much money it is not, he cannot feed the poor, house the homeless, or give us all a raise, it isn't THAT much money.

Jason

 

[perry]

I was about to buy a lottery ticket a few weeks back. Went to the gas station across the street from my apartment complex to buy some coke and crap, my total came out to be $7.77. I mentioned to the guy that I should buy a Pick 3 ticket for the next drawing. He said that I shouldn't. I asked why, he says because 777 hit a few hours earlier in the mid-day drawing. I'm sure I woulda won a couple hundred bucks off that.

 

[Dunbar]

Can you guys not conceptualize how slim a 1 in 200 million chance of winning is? Let me put it to you this way, it's really really really really really really...really really really really unlikely you'll win. Ya sure somebody wins but of course somebody is going to win, it's the odds that matter. Don't waste your money on lottery, and don't encourage the hypocrisy of the government.

 

[jehh]

You know what is most funny about the odds? Your odds are actually rather good if you think of it this way...

You buy one ticket each week, picking the same numbers. All you have to do is keep buying tickets for about half a million years, then odds are you'll win. If you belive in the law of averages, you should hit about halfway through, or in about a quarter million years. To get a 1% chance to win, you would have to play for *only* 4,346 years to win, or 2,173 years to hit the middle and win via law of averages.

Still think you might win? Ok, consider this, you could fit all the lotto winners in US history in the 747's of the world, about 13 times over. Or you could fit them all on a big cruise ship. Or you could fit them inside a small basketball stadium. About the only thing fewer people have done is be President of the United States and go into space (43 on the former, just over 400 on the latter) If you play the odds, you would have to live about 3.1 million years to get around to being President (how is that for long odds, almost makes the lotto look easy), you would have to live about 1.3 million years to get to go into space based on the averages (space travel has been around less years, so the numbers appear off but are really not)

How about this, if all lotto winners were painted green, odds are that you could go your whole life without EVER seeing one of them. Actually, it would take about 169 years before you would meet your first one, if you meet 10 new people a week (and how many people meet 10 new people a week)

There are more known black holes than lotto winners... There are more charted comets in the solar system than lotto winners... The list goes on, and on...

(as a side note, all these figures are for US lotto winners of pick 6, pick 7, or pick 6 + powerball type big money type lottos since 1900, I don't have figures futher back than that.)

Sigh... It sure sounds nice, but it just ain't gonna happen. If it does, great, but consider yourself blessed with all your life's worth of good luck in one fell swoop.

I love numbers, they are so cool.

Jason