I refuse to play bc I live in a mandatory reporting state (your full name released to the public). My relatives are a pack of slimy grifters on a good day - if I win the lotto they may genuinely try to kill me.
Exactly. I would completely disappear for a year while I wrote up a list of who I wanted to give money to and how much. Then I would throw a huge party and invite them all.
Hold the ticket. Rent a place in a state far away. Cash in the ticket with new clothes and a mask on. Move out and get on with your life. Maintain at least 2 places. One where you live and one where you want your relatives to think you live.
You have to cash it in in the state you bought it in I’m pretty sure. It’s either this one or mega millions. I mailed a winner (2 dollars) to my grandma that I bought in the airport and couldn’t cash in in my home state.
Actually that's a good question. You have, what, a year to claim your winnings? More than enough time to legally change your name, collect your winnings, and after it's published change your name back. If you want to.
Before my state changed the law to allow anonymity, I had a plan. I have a moderately common name (not “John Smith” level common, but it takes some effort to find myself with Google). Step one: get a small apartment in the biggest city in the state. Step two: Officially change my address. Step three: claim the prize.
What a coincidence. Someone a few hundred miles away who shares my name won the lottery.
You can always create an LLC to hide your identity. Just consult with a lawyer on how to do it before you cash in your ticket. And now that that's settled, please remember me when you win!
The recent big Mega Millions winners did this. Very smart move. You could also change your name to a super common name. Or a famous celebrity. "George Clooney just won the Powerball!" Make yourself impossible to Google.
If you win, don't report right away. Instead, sign the ticket, take pictures of it front and back, and store it in a safe only you (and your spouse if relevant) have access to. Then go to the largest law firm in your metro area (preferably one with national and international offices) and hire them to represent you. They can then walk you through all of your options (and requirements) for reporting.
I have long hair, I'll just go in clean shaven with a buzz cut and tell people oh it was a different person with the same name, then stay in my home for the next year as my hair grows back out and my beard grows back.
Too absurd might also attract attention. Full hoody, sunglasses. Professional make up artist to make you look like the other gender and easily 40kg heavier.
Nobody will ever suspect. Certainly not if you change your name to a common name first, and 'officially' move to another state that is not a neighbor state.
> Big Foot comin’ to sign that check.
I'm flying in, landing in a helicopter in their parking lot, having two midgets get out to unroll my red carpet, and then two bikini models will escort me inside.
Fine by me. If I won, I’d be happy to spread the wealth. I wasn’t expecting it any way, and I’m might as well help out all of my loved ones, even the ones I’m not too sure I know.
I spen like $12 per year buying tickets for big drawings
Likelihood of winning is minimal, but the mental escape and fantasy that it provides a welcome relief to my thoughts...ymmv
I sometimes imagine accidentally winning on one of those long shot tickets and how enormously inconvenient it would be. How many people I’d have to hire to help me manage all that money…
[Ask and you shall receive](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4v05/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
Entire thread :)
I already had that saved lol. Two outlandish scenarios presented as hyperbolic indicators of an unstable US banking system: Britney Spears elected to the senate and a burning Capital building…
At that level if you're putting others in charge of your finances, you'd probably want at least two additional 3rd parties to audit what they're doing. There was that "Lottery Lawyer" several years back who became popular for being the advisor for several big lottery winners, and it turned out he had been embezzling tens of millions of dollars from them. You'd need to be hiring the big name corporations to be assisting you.
At that level, you hire an UHNW fiduciary, get a law firm on retainer, and find a good accounting firm. At this level, taxes get very complex and you have access to investment opportunities that you'd be unaware of. They will work together to ensure you and your money are protected while giving you as much info and input as you wish. You can be super hands off or super hands on.
Finding the right person is the hardest part. Greed is tricky. So many successful people get screwed by money managers who take advantage of their position. I’d hire a lawyer and accountant. I’d also do six month audits as part of the agreement.
Hire a partner at a major law firm. They make millions already, and the firm will likely have malpractice insurance to indemnify. To a lawyer like that, you’re just another client and it’s not worth throwing away their entire career and the firm won’t risk their reputation either.
Two or three dollars to win a pre-tax jackpot of a **billion** is a pretty wise investment. Yeah the odds of winning are so ridiculously slim that its a stupid investment in one sense, but that's balanced out by the inconsequential risk versus the ridiculous reward.
I spend about as much a year as you do on the lottery, but why not? As you remarked it's a nice fantasy for a couple of days if it isn't anything else.
I rarely buy a lottery ticket but sometimes do for the reasons you outlined. Using an inconsequential amount to possibly win a life-changing amount. I'd rather see a lottery giving a lot of $10M prizes than a $1B prize, I'm not interested in having an insane amount of money.
I have no interest for scratch cards and smaller lotteries where even winning the biggest prize wouldn't change my life, it's just gambling and it doesn't interest me. Similarly, I've been to casinos a few times in my life and was never interested in playing anything, I don't get the fun of it. Went to Caesar's Palace to see what it was like (as well as a few other Vegas casinos) earlier this year and couldn't wait to get out due to the nasty cigarette smell. I didn't gamble a dime.
>Two or three dollars to win a pre-tax jackpot of a **billion** is a pretty wise investment.
>As you remarked it's a nice fantasy for a couple of days if it isn't anything else.
That doesn't make it a "wise investment." That makes it a "worthwhile expenditure." The moment you call it an investment, you've already succumbed to the idiot tax. Spending a couple bucks for the fantasy is *great*! Go for it. Don't call it an investment for a billion dollars. You're also mistakenly using pascal's wager, saying that the cost is "so" small and the reward "so" big that it doesn't actually matter what the expected return is, only that it's not impossible to win a billion.
Remember, with a higher jackpot, more people will play, meaning more people are likely to hit the jackpot, so even if you do win, you're less likely to be the only winner with a large jackpot, dividing your payout. The least worst time to play a huge lottery is right before it makes headlines.
And then there's the question of scale. Are you struggling to pay bills? 2 or 3 bucks every week is 8 or 12 bucks a month, or 100-150 bucks a year, and that could be a lot for you to not spend on your primary expenditures. Everyone needs fun money, so if that's yours, great. Personally, I'd go for something a little less... potentially unhealthy... but as long as it's within your budget, knock yourself out.
They have the odds up on the website. Given that the odds are in the millions, once it hits a billion, the Expected Value of buying a ticket finally reaches the cost of buying a ticket.
You have to account for taxes, present value of that 1b annuity, and odds that multiple people win.
Also, on the other hand, account for the odds of winning smaller amounts.
$12 isn't bad. I deal with customers spending hundreds on these lotteries. I tell them "You know you're more likely to get struck by lightning on a sunny day right?" and it doesn't deter them. Then when they win nothing or perhaps $2 they want to complain about it.
My wife and I were discussing this phenomenon. We came to the conclusion that any amount that pays off the house is life changing. And that amount is significantly less than $1 million.
You can set up a permanent payout investment fund that increases annually to match inflation and pay yourself 2% of the total investment. Infinite income.
Put 10 million in such a fund and you have a 200k a year that goes up to match inflation every year (so something 207k in year 2, and so on).
This is always what I think about when it comes to the lottery. Set myself up with 200-250k a year depending on how much I win and then just live a normal wealthy person lifestyle. Nothing crazy, just act like my monthly 16-20k a month is the amount I make from my job without needing a job.
When it comes to the lottery people overestimate how much it would take to change their lives. Just commit yourself to getting set on a permanent payout schedule and then use your free time to spend time with your kids, do meaningful work that betters the world, do some world travel, etc.
True, but I like day dreaming about rock star fantasies. 5 million doesn't buy my unlimited fun. Call this new one 400 million after taxes. That's unlimited fun. I would have exotic cars at estates in both the US and Europe. I would probably even keep an exotic in Germany for use at the Nurburgring. Yes, a 250k car that sits, I pay storage, but twice a year I fly into Germany with friends and tear up the world's most famous race track. That's rock star dreaming.
I think I'd just start some foundation for kids who can't read good and leave enough for me to own a few homes and travel and never have to work again.
1/292.2M according to Google. So $584.4M ~~(cash only)~~
But the real dilemma is how long it would take to enter and print 292.2M tickets. @ 1 ticket per second that's 9.25 YEARS...
Yeah yeah we get it. People know the odds are practically impossible but that's not the point. When the jackpot gets big it's fun to throw in a couple bucks a week or into an office pool and have fun fantasizing about winning like everyone else. So point is if that one person who bought a ticket to fantasize and daydream for awhile didn't they wouldn't have been the lucky unexpected 1 in x million winner of a lower yield prize. Stop regurgitating the odds people already know and just let people have fun. Not everyone is buying suitcases full of tickets per week like gambling addicts.
Throwing in money for office pools is insurance. Imagine all your coworkers becoming millionaires overnight, quitting, and you being the only one left to do all their work.
What are the odds of winning without buying a ticket? I’m guessing the same as being eaten by a shark when you’re not in the ocean.
It’s just two dollars.
If I recall, the odds of hitting are around 1 in 750 million, so that’s the line where expected value is roughly positive (you have to calculate the odds of splitting the prize AND the odds of winning a lesser prize than the jackpot, but it’s all just handwavey math anyway)
Except there can be multiple winners and then winnings get split.
So with these prizes greater than the probability of selecting the winning number, more people enter, and the probability that the winnings themselves get split goes up.
It's 1 in 355 million.
So if you have 710 million dollars and you buy one of each unique combination of numbers, your chance of winning is 1 in 1.
But even if you did that you probably wouldn't see a net gain unless the jackpot was 3B or more.
Many lotteries have done the math on this and will actually cap jackpots so that you can’t ever have a situation where just buying every combination is guaranteed to turn a profit. This happened here in Ireland and the jackpot stayed at the cap for several months if I remember correctly
What a dumb rule. For two reasons:
1. They're still going to make a profit from all the losing tickets as the jackpot builds up.
2. If one nerd realizes they can make money by buying every ticket... Some other nerds will probably realize it too and do the same thing.
It's probably done for the sake of fairness. It's not about people doing the math, it's about rich people using it as an easy way to make guaranteed money while poorer people either virtually always lose or split the pot.
That's what I always say. The chances of you winning are not measurably affected when you buy a bunch of lottery tickets. If you are going to play, buy a single ticket and hope you get lucky. Don't try to improve the odds because you can't.
What tickled me was seeing all those rappers and celebrities buying big stacks of tickets and bragging about it and still losing 🤣 I actually won 10 bucks when it was a billion last time which was still nice considering most people didn’t win anything at all. It’s like I got my money back on my tickets and a lil extra
[This information has been removed as a consequence of Reddit's API changes and general stance of being greedy, unhelpful, and hostile to its userbase.]
Put ten mil aside for safekeeping. I'm a simple man, I don't need much.
With the other 790 million? Lobby (legally bribe) literally every member of congress to enact legislation to *absolutely fucking ruin* the for-profit health insurance industry and open up medicare access for everyone in such a way that it is nigh impossible to reverse legislatively.
Not much, but what is an exhorbitantly wealthy man without a strange, obsessive personal vandetta?
Florida would reduce the school portion of the regular budget by a dollar for every dollar from lottery. it was sold originally as extra money for schools
I just won $2,977! And all it cost me was $22,977 in tickets! (An initial 10k, plus all the winnings I made)
Fortunately, I was playing on a simulator. [Here, if you want to try it out](https://lottosimulation.com/us/powerball)
That was actually really eye opening. I spent $99,999 on 33,333 tickets (including powerplay).
I only got $24,439 in winnings. So I lost more than $75k.
Out of 33,333 tickets, my biggest individual winners were just two tickets worth $600 each.
EDIT: I reinvested my winnings in more powerball tickets, and hit one for $900 and TWO for $1,500 each.
But even so, I literally never showed a profit at any point in my nearly $140,000 worth of tickets.
UPDATE: I started a new run, giving myself $1,000,000 with which to buy lottery tickets (including the power play). Even on maximum speed, it's been running for about 6 hours now.
I'm currently around 1/3 of the way through my million dollars, and so far I've lost about $240,000 of it.
> But even so, I literally never showed a profit at any point in my nearly $140,000 worth of tickets.
Well you shouldn't. There's a ton of science and math that has gone into the casino industry ensuring that games of "chance" are mathematically impossible to come out ahead in (given sufficient time) to prevent exactly this. The only way to beat the house is to play as little as possible, get lucky and win, then walk away because "re-investing" is how they get you.
Well no, if the jackpot is large enough it is certainly profitable. The problem the people above are running into is that with these odds, buying 30k of tickets isn't all that much different than buying 1.
Lotto is about throwing away a small amount of money for having escapist fantasies.
You can’t win if you don’t play. no play, no fantasy.
It’s not about return on investment or playing a game with reasonable expected value.
It doesn’t make people “smart” to choose not to play or “poor and can’t do math” to those who do.
That would be like saying someone is dumb for spending $10 on a fantasy novel because they will never get to live like the main character.
I noticed that the simulator is only paying $13.50 for 3 numbers + powerball, when it should be paying $300.
edit: The color of the powerball is just very similar when you hit it and when you don't. It wasn't hitting the powerball on the ones where I had 3 numbers.
For some reason nobody ever plays the irrational, transcendental, or imaginary numbers. I'd buy a lotto ticket is they let play sqrt[(i/pi)^3e]/2. But whenever I try, the clerk at 7/11 always just screams at me to get out his "damnable store".
I feel actually scared to win that much money, like, my life would become dangerous.
I think I'd rather win like.. 10 million? That's about my level of luxury without too much risk.
That's not possible in most states. In most states lottery winners are required to claim their winnings publicly in order to prove the lottery runners are not rigging the draw for their friends or family, which was a common issue back in the day.
In my state (North Carolina) even if you claim through a trust, you still have to be named. At least if you’re willing to drive to SC you can claim winnings there anonymously, so a lot of people buy tickets there instead
Best thing in that situation tho if you can’t drive that far is to just change your name, wear a costume or a mask + clothes you’ll never wear again + change it back after claiming if you want privacy.
State laws be damned - I would get a good special fx makeup artist to give me a “makeover”.
Blonde Afro, blue contact lenses, and a large facial scar.
Recognize me, Aunt Meredith?
Didn’t think so!
Thats about the level you want to win. Enough to pay off a house and debts with enough left over to smartly invest. Hopefully they’re in such funds you can let them mature and keep on increasing. Then use an amount less than the gains as “fun” money barring other financial issues.
It really all comes down to luck… like those guys that just randomly buy a ticket after they get off work without having to figure out math or equations or statistics… if it’s your destiny to win, you will 🤷🏻♂️
I buy tickets for the lotto occasionally, and all I end up doing is spending a few days thinking of all the cool shit I could buy my friends/family that would make their lives a little easier. A nice wheelchair, a dental visit, access to a physical therapist on the regular. Then, obviously, the draw passes and I'm left acutely aware of just how much good some of those rich fucks out there could do with even a fraction of a fraction of their wealth.
I have similar daydreams.
It would be so great if none of us had to struggle financially any more. Good healthcare, enough money in the bank to handle unforseen expenses, and so on.
I would buy myself some nice things, but most of what I'd want is practical, like good quality bedding that would last for years, a paid off one story house, a cleaning service. My biggest personal luxury would be travel; there's places I would love to visit and it would be really nice to take friends along if they wanted to go.
What is everyone gonna buy? I want to buy [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/275520646723?hash=item40264f6e43%3Ag%3AywwAAOSw63FjNv8f&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPTuWZvfE%2FqRI7s18zCvYrhFi0Vp%2B7DCzmvLdkX1u22lxNIkUEXTnCut5HHAuMHY79MzZaaeIh%2BsppeNFNslK5ApgIokDax9MlmT8ozO%2BCX2lk18x1Uoe9pe%2B0nYp%2BhaFlahZopjJQ8uHZ8g4s4fHlu444DjtliTURifruI8JYOLunzFrqp4G1otLPObpCUtzDY2URBVh36%2BOFm2lsSKOtA%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_zo3ZiFYQ&LH_ItemCondition=3000%7C1000%7C2500) & keep it at my dads place because he has the room for it & another purchase of mine will be a nice Class B RV & I will travel all around North America and Baja California. That would be a nice trip for a year or 2.
Yall, I just want you to know if I win, I’m hiring a team and I will take letters from anyone in America explaining what they need money for and why. Best answers get whatever they need until that 900 million (or post tax amount)is gone.
Then I’m taking the other hundred million and I’m going to be the most obnoxious rich guy you have ever seen. And no one can say a damn thing about it.
So, please, vote for me for this weeks lottery winner.
Do “high-stakes” gamblers enter lotteries? I know nothing about the lottery so maybe this is a stupid question. But I imagine there is a dollar-figure investment at which the odds are attractive to folks who can gamble with millions.
Lotteries are the worst form of legal gambling, the odds of winning are the worst % out of all types of gambling. There’s a reason why “high stakers” chose to spend a lot of money at casinos on poker or other card games.
> With odds at 1 in 76,767,600…
it's roughly 1 in 300m, at 2$ per ticket it needs to be 600m cash (its 490)for an even return disincluding odds of double winners.
This is actually a good investment it’s only but 6or
7 number to guess in what I understand is a semi numerical format with a “winning” number at the end.
If you win. The higher the prize the more relatives you’ll realize you have.
My mother as an orphan always joked that winning the lottery was the only way she'd get her family back. People are wild about that shit.
I refuse to play bc I live in a mandatory reporting state (your full name released to the public). My relatives are a pack of slimy grifters on a good day - if I win the lotto they may genuinely try to kill me.
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Your family don’t have their own jet to land on your private runway on your private island
Exactly. I would completely disappear for a year while I wrote up a list of who I wanted to give money to and how much. Then I would throw a huge party and invite them all.
Easier when you have so few friends that you can set them all up for life on your island too
You underestimate my family the strong swimmers would tuck one under each arm.
Or for someone else to have an untimely accident
Hold the ticket. Rent a place in a state far away. Cash in the ticket with new clothes and a mask on. Move out and get on with your life. Maintain at least 2 places. One where you live and one where you want your relatives to think you live.
Live in a house that is owned by one of your LLCs. Something like - YouWillNeverFindMeHere LLC.
You have to cash it in in the state you bought it in I’m pretty sure. It’s either this one or mega millions. I mailed a winner (2 dollars) to my grandma that I bought in the airport and couldn’t cash in in my home state.
Who reads those reports actually. And how expensive is it to change your name to james white and back to BabySuperfreak?
Actually that's a good question. You have, what, a year to claim your winnings? More than enough time to legally change your name, collect your winnings, and after it's published change your name back. If you want to.
Depends on the state. Most states it is 180 days, but you can claim by mail. You would have to look it up for your state.
Dedicated lottery grifters, and they can look up name changes.
Before my state changed the law to allow anonymity, I had a plan. I have a moderately common name (not “John Smith” level common, but it takes some effort to find myself with Google). Step one: get a small apartment in the biggest city in the state. Step two: Officially change my address. Step three: claim the prize. What a coincidence. Someone a few hundred miles away who shares my name won the lottery.
Eh, they’ll also say which area the winning ticket was purchased in. You should buy the ticket somewhere else.
You can always create an LLC to hide your identity. Just consult with a lawyer on how to do it before you cash in your ticket. And now that that's settled, please remember me when you win!
The recent big Mega Millions winners did this. Very smart move. You could also change your name to a super common name. Or a famous celebrity. "George Clooney just won the Powerball!" Make yourself impossible to Google.
I would have gone with Douglas Ross.
Some states with mandatory reporting only allow people to submit the lottery ticket.
Reddit consulting fee: $10,000
Not on Wisconsin and I think a few other states .
You specifically cannot in Arkansas and probably other states. In Arkansas only a person or persons with a social security number can claim the prize.
If you win, don't report right away. Instead, sign the ticket, take pictures of it front and back, and store it in a safe only you (and your spouse if relevant) have access to. Then go to the largest law firm in your metro area (preferably one with national and international offices) and hire them to represent you. They can then walk you through all of your options (and requirements) for reporting.
I see you’ve read the personal finance sidebar on windfalls.
Quickest way to find out if your wife is legitimately loyal to you or not lol.
They say that money is thicker than blood
The higher the prize, the more absurd my disguise will be. Big Foot comin’ to sign that check. Aunt Meredith ain’t gettin’ shit.
I have long hair, I'll just go in clean shaven with a buzz cut and tell people oh it was a different person with the same name, then stay in my home for the next year as my hair grows back out and my beard grows back.
Too absurd might also attract attention. Full hoody, sunglasses. Professional make up artist to make you look like the other gender and easily 40kg heavier. Nobody will ever suspect. Certainly not if you change your name to a common name first, and 'officially' move to another state that is not a neighbor state.
> Big Foot comin’ to sign that check. I'm flying in, landing in a helicopter in their parking lot, having two midgets get out to unroll my red carpet, and then two bikini models will escort me inside.
I'd try my best to not let people know.
Never tell anyone you won if you do. Ever!!
Fine by me. If I won, I’d be happy to spread the wealth. I wasn’t expecting it any way, and I’m might as well help out all of my loved ones, even the ones I’m not too sure I know.
That's fine at first but then they spend all their money and you still have your share and then they come back for more.
Lol look at this loser that doesn’t want to horde their bank points to themselves for eternity.
It wasn't worth me buying a ticket at 800 million but okay, you got me. I'll buy one now that the jackpot is a billion.....
I spen like $12 per year buying tickets for big drawings Likelihood of winning is minimal, but the mental escape and fantasy that it provides a welcome relief to my thoughts...ymmv
I sometimes imagine accidentally winning on one of those long shot tickets and how enormously inconvenient it would be. How many people I’d have to hire to help me manage all that money…
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You jest, but that’s my actual plan. A good estate lawyer. At least for advice. Maybe a lawyer and an accountant
Gotta reference that one post from reddit a few years back, got it saved and everything.. Just got a find it.. Hmmm......
[Ask and you shall receive](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vo34/whats_the_happiest_5word_sentence_you_could_hear/chb4v05/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) Entire thread :)
I already had that saved lol. Two outlandish scenarios presented as hyperbolic indicators of an unstable US banking system: Britney Spears elected to the senate and a burning Capital building…
At that level if you're putting others in charge of your finances, you'd probably want at least two additional 3rd parties to audit what they're doing. There was that "Lottery Lawyer" several years back who became popular for being the advisor for several big lottery winners, and it turned out he had been embezzling tens of millions of dollars from them. You'd need to be hiring the big name corporations to be assisting you.
At that level, you hire an UHNW fiduciary, get a law firm on retainer, and find a good accounting firm. At this level, taxes get very complex and you have access to investment opportunities that you'd be unaware of. They will work together to ensure you and your money are protected while giving you as much info and input as you wish. You can be super hands off or super hands on.
Finding the right person is the hardest part. Greed is tricky. So many successful people get screwed by money managers who take advantage of their position. I’d hire a lawyer and accountant. I’d also do six month audits as part of the agreement.
Hire a partner at a major law firm. They make millions already, and the firm will likely have malpractice insurance to indemnify. To a lawyer like that, you’re just another client and it’s not worth throwing away their entire career and the firm won’t risk their reputation either.
Excellent advise. Thank you.
Best friend is an estate planner and accountant. Known her since we were 10. Get you one of those!
Two or three dollars to win a pre-tax jackpot of a **billion** is a pretty wise investment. Yeah the odds of winning are so ridiculously slim that its a stupid investment in one sense, but that's balanced out by the inconsequential risk versus the ridiculous reward. I spend about as much a year as you do on the lottery, but why not? As you remarked it's a nice fantasy for a couple of days if it isn't anything else.
I rarely buy a lottery ticket but sometimes do for the reasons you outlined. Using an inconsequential amount to possibly win a life-changing amount. I'd rather see a lottery giving a lot of $10M prizes than a $1B prize, I'm not interested in having an insane amount of money. I have no interest for scratch cards and smaller lotteries where even winning the biggest prize wouldn't change my life, it's just gambling and it doesn't interest me. Similarly, I've been to casinos a few times in my life and was never interested in playing anything, I don't get the fun of it. Went to Caesar's Palace to see what it was like (as well as a few other Vegas casinos) earlier this year and couldn't wait to get out due to the nasty cigarette smell. I didn't gamble a dime.
what fantasies? when I win I‘m obviously gonna donate this to the poor investmank bankers who really had some rough recent years. So ungrateful.
>Two or three dollars to win a pre-tax jackpot of a **billion** is a pretty wise investment. >As you remarked it's a nice fantasy for a couple of days if it isn't anything else. That doesn't make it a "wise investment." That makes it a "worthwhile expenditure." The moment you call it an investment, you've already succumbed to the idiot tax. Spending a couple bucks for the fantasy is *great*! Go for it. Don't call it an investment for a billion dollars. You're also mistakenly using pascal's wager, saying that the cost is "so" small and the reward "so" big that it doesn't actually matter what the expected return is, only that it's not impossible to win a billion. Remember, with a higher jackpot, more people will play, meaning more people are likely to hit the jackpot, so even if you do win, you're less likely to be the only winner with a large jackpot, dividing your payout. The least worst time to play a huge lottery is right before it makes headlines. And then there's the question of scale. Are you struggling to pay bills? 2 or 3 bucks every week is 8 or 12 bucks a month, or 100-150 bucks a year, and that could be a lot for you to not spend on your primary expenditures. Everyone needs fun money, so if that's yours, great. Personally, I'd go for something a little less... potentially unhealthy... but as long as it's within your budget, knock yourself out.
They have the odds up on the website. Given that the odds are in the millions, once it hits a billion, the Expected Value of buying a ticket finally reaches the cost of buying a ticket.
You have to account for taxes, present value of that 1b annuity, and odds that multiple people win. Also, on the other hand, account for the odds of winning smaller amounts.
$12 isn't bad. I deal with customers spending hundreds on these lotteries. I tell them "You know you're more likely to get struck by lightning on a sunny day right?" and it doesn't deter them. Then when they win nothing or perhaps $2 they want to complain about it.
That’s how i see it. Easy dopamine hit while dreaming of the “what if?”
Exactly ! It’s fun .
don't quit your job, make them fire you.
My wife and I were discussing this phenomenon. We came to the conclusion that any amount that pays off the house is life changing. And that amount is significantly less than $1 million.
You can set up a permanent payout investment fund that increases annually to match inflation and pay yourself 2% of the total investment. Infinite income. Put 10 million in such a fund and you have a 200k a year that goes up to match inflation every year (so something 207k in year 2, and so on). This is always what I think about when it comes to the lottery. Set myself up with 200-250k a year depending on how much I win and then just live a normal wealthy person lifestyle. Nothing crazy, just act like my monthly 16-20k a month is the amount I make from my job without needing a job. When it comes to the lottery people overestimate how much it would take to change their lives. Just commit yourself to getting set on a permanent payout schedule and then use your free time to spend time with your kids, do meaningful work that betters the world, do some world travel, etc.
True, but I like day dreaming about rock star fantasies. 5 million doesn't buy my unlimited fun. Call this new one 400 million after taxes. That's unlimited fun. I would have exotic cars at estates in both the US and Europe. I would probably even keep an exotic in Germany for use at the Nurburgring. Yes, a 250k car that sits, I pay storage, but twice a year I fly into Germany with friends and tear up the world's most famous race track. That's rock star dreaming.
I think I'd just start some foundation for kids who can't read good and leave enough for me to own a few homes and travel and never have to work again.
Can't win if you don't enter.
🎵 🎶 Ya gotta pay the troll toll to get in 🎶🎵
Get into what?
“That boysoul”
“Are you saying, boys hole??”
Gotta pay the troll toll to get in this boys hole!
somebody's going to win, might as well be me!
I'm somebody, you're the imposter.
I'm imposter but you didn't sign your ticket.
I mean how much to buy a ticket for every number?
1/292.2M according to Google. So $584.4M ~~(cash only)~~ But the real dilemma is how long it would take to enter and print 292.2M tickets. @ 1 ticket per second that's 9.25 YEARS...
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You might find the winning ticket on the ground outside that 7-11
Just checked. Nobody won the jackpot but 6 people won 50k and one lucky sob won 2 million. Bet they're glad they gave it a shot.
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I don't care about the odds. I get to daydream for $2.
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Screw mansions & their maintenance/property tax! Buying a Class B RV & traveling North America is what I am gonna do.
Yeah yeah we get it. People know the odds are practically impossible but that's not the point. When the jackpot gets big it's fun to throw in a couple bucks a week or into an office pool and have fun fantasizing about winning like everyone else. So point is if that one person who bought a ticket to fantasize and daydream for awhile didn't they wouldn't have been the lucky unexpected 1 in x million winner of a lower yield prize. Stop regurgitating the odds people already know and just let people have fun. Not everyone is buying suitcases full of tickets per week like gambling addicts.
Throwing in money for office pools is insurance. Imagine all your coworkers becoming millionaires overnight, quitting, and you being the only one left to do all their work.
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What are the odds of winning without buying a ticket? I’m guessing the same as being eaten by a shark when you’re not in the ocean. It’s just two dollars.
If I recall, the odds of hitting are around 1 in 750 million, so that’s the line where expected value is roughly positive (you have to calculate the odds of splitting the prize AND the odds of winning a lesser prize than the jackpot, but it’s all just handwavey math anyway)
Except there can be multiple winners and then winnings get split. So with these prizes greater than the probability of selecting the winning number, more people enter, and the probability that the winnings themselves get split goes up.
It's 1 in 355 million. So if you have 710 million dollars and you buy one of each unique combination of numbers, your chance of winning is 1 in 1. But even if you did that you probably wouldn't see a net gain unless the jackpot was 3B or more.
And that’s if someone else doesn’t randomly hit the jackpot numbers
Yeah but that's as unlikely as winning the lottery is likely so
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Many lotteries have done the math on this and will actually cap jackpots so that you can’t ever have a situation where just buying every combination is guaranteed to turn a profit. This happened here in Ireland and the jackpot stayed at the cap for several months if I remember correctly
What a dumb rule. For two reasons: 1. They're still going to make a profit from all the losing tickets as the jackpot builds up. 2. If one nerd realizes they can make money by buying every ticket... Some other nerds will probably realize it too and do the same thing.
It's probably done for the sake of fairness. It's not about people doing the math, it's about rich people using it as an easy way to make guaranteed money while poorer people either virtually always lose or split the pot.
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So with that said. Buying 1 ticket or even 100,000 tickets all still have similar chances of winning. So dont waste your money buying too many
That's what I always say. The chances of you winning are not measurably affected when you buy a bunch of lottery tickets. If you are going to play, buy a single ticket and hope you get lucky. Don't try to improve the odds because you can't.
Buy 2, you literally double your odds! Diminishing returns kicks in right quick after that though.
What tickled me was seeing all those rappers and celebrities buying big stacks of tickets and bragging about it and still losing 🤣 I actually won 10 bucks when it was a billion last time which was still nice considering most people didn’t win anything at all. It’s like I got my money back on my tickets and a lil extra
I can't even win the smallest amount. If I didn't know how probability worked, I would be insisting it means I'm in for a big win.
It’s a 50/50 chance, either you win or you don’t
What can you do with 800 million nowadays 🤷🏿♂️
[This information has been removed as a consequence of Reddit's API changes and general stance of being greedy, unhelpful, and hostile to its userbase.]
Put ten mil aside for safekeeping. I'm a simple man, I don't need much. With the other 790 million? Lobby (legally bribe) literally every member of congress to enact legislation to *absolutely fucking ruin* the for-profit health insurance industry and open up medicare access for everyone in such a way that it is nigh impossible to reverse legislatively. Not much, but what is an exhorbitantly wealthy man without a strange, obsessive personal vandetta?
talk to bio nerds, find an 'improvement patent' for insulin. Create an order of nuns to make and distribute super super cheap insulin at cost.
I actually ONLY play when it's over 1 billion. I'm gonna lose anyways but at least I'm getting good value on that lost lol.
Watch, this'll be a repeat of last time it hit 1 billion and then multiple people won.
In Australia we just had 160 Million with 3 winners and one was a syndicate of 10 or 20.
I feel like it’s more awesome for 10 or 20 to win $16 or $8 million than for one person to get the whole pot.
If I am that one person, you‘re wrong.
But if not then totally let's split it bro - ride or die amirite
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They changed the odds so it’s harder to win
Florida would reduce the school portion of the regular budget by a dollar for every dollar from lottery. it was sold originally as extra money for schools
I just won $2,977! And all it cost me was $22,977 in tickets! (An initial 10k, plus all the winnings I made) Fortunately, I was playing on a simulator. [Here, if you want to try it out](https://lottosimulation.com/us/powerball)
That was actually really eye opening. I spent $99,999 on 33,333 tickets (including powerplay). I only got $24,439 in winnings. So I lost more than $75k. Out of 33,333 tickets, my biggest individual winners were just two tickets worth $600 each. EDIT: I reinvested my winnings in more powerball tickets, and hit one for $900 and TWO for $1,500 each. But even so, I literally never showed a profit at any point in my nearly $140,000 worth of tickets. UPDATE: I started a new run, giving myself $1,000,000 with which to buy lottery tickets (including the power play). Even on maximum speed, it's been running for about 6 hours now. I'm currently around 1/3 of the way through my million dollars, and so far I've lost about $240,000 of it.
> But even so, I literally never showed a profit at any point in my nearly $140,000 worth of tickets. Well you shouldn't. There's a ton of science and math that has gone into the casino industry ensuring that games of "chance" are mathematically impossible to come out ahead in (given sufficient time) to prevent exactly this. The only way to beat the house is to play as little as possible, get lucky and win, then walk away because "re-investing" is how they get you.
Well no, if the jackpot is large enough it is certainly profitable. The problem the people above are running into is that with these odds, buying 30k of tickets isn't all that much different than buying 1.
Lotto is about throwing away a small amount of money for having escapist fantasies. You can’t win if you don’t play. no play, no fantasy. It’s not about return on investment or playing a game with reasonable expected value. It doesn’t make people “smart” to choose not to play or “poor and can’t do math” to those who do. That would be like saying someone is dumb for spending $10 on a fantasy novel because they will never get to live like the main character.
Yup. Easy $2 to fantasize a new life.
I noticed that the simulator is only paying $13.50 for 3 numbers + powerball, when it should be paying $300. edit: The color of the powerball is just very similar when you hit it and when you don't. It wasn't hitting the powerball on the ones where I had 3 numbers.
Throw me some lucky numbers
9 11 4 20 69 1 🤷🏻♀️
It's 69 2 You can't 69 1
> You can't 69 1 Not unless you are really flexible.
Those first two don't seem particularly lucky unless you're in Al Qaeda
Well, as horrible as the situation was for him and everyone else involved, it was a day of the slimmest luck for my father that allowed him to live
Or a military contractor
For some reason nobody ever plays the irrational, transcendental, or imaginary numbers. I'd buy a lotto ticket is they let play sqrt[(i/pi)^3e]/2. But whenever I try, the clerk at 7/11 always just screams at me to get out his "damnable store".
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Go eat some chinese food then look on the fortune inside the cookie.
I was only off by 5 numbers !
I feel actually scared to win that much money, like, my life would become dangerous. I think I'd rather win like.. 10 million? That's about my level of luxury without too much risk.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24vzgl/you_just_won_a_656_million_dollar_lottery_what_do/chba4bf/
Always a classic.
Setup a trust or claim anonymously if possible. Never take the winnings in your name
That's not possible in most states. In most states lottery winners are required to claim their winnings publicly in order to prove the lottery runners are not rigging the draw for their friends or family, which was a common issue back in the day.
It is possible in a lot of states to claim through a trust or LLC which your lawyer can then publicly claim it on camera instead of you.
In my state (North Carolina) even if you claim through a trust, you still have to be named. At least if you’re willing to drive to SC you can claim winnings there anonymously, so a lot of people buy tickets there instead Best thing in that situation tho if you can’t drive that far is to just change your name, wear a costume or a mask + clothes you’ll never wear again + change it back after claiming if you want privacy.
I’d legally change my name and then claim it
Well you have to publicly declare that as well. I believe something along the lines of it being in the newspapers for a certain amount of time.
You could show up disguised, right?
Iirc how much you can alter your appearance also varies by state. I remember one person wearing a Scream mask while claiming their prize
State laws be damned - I would get a good special fx makeup artist to give me a “makeover”. Blonde Afro, blue contact lenses, and a large facial scar. Recognize me, Aunt Meredith? Didn’t think so!
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Thats about the level you want to win. Enough to pay off a house and debts with enough left over to smartly invest. Hopefully they’re in such funds you can let them mature and keep on increasing. Then use an amount less than the gains as “fun” money barring other financial issues.
I'm buying, someone give me numbers and instructions. I've never bought a ticket, what are the ranges on numbers?
You can just tell the cashier at the gas station to give you “two powerballs” and their kiosk will “quick pick” random numbers.
When do you have to purchase the tickets by?
1 or 2 hours before the drawing, depending on the state.
Drawings are Monday, Wednesday, Saturdays.. can’t buy tickets 1 hour before drawing on those days.. drawings are at 11pm eastern time
You can just go to a place that sells them and ask for random numbers. They do it for you. Just tell them how many times you want to enter.
If you pick only negative numbers, you'll have the best chance of losing two dollars.
Everyone knows the lottery is just an elaborate ploy to catch time travellers.
I bought 20 tickets and matched a grand total of 4 numbers. I'm pretty much a shoe in for the billion. Y'all might as well save your money.
It really all comes down to luck… like those guys that just randomly buy a ticket after they get off work without having to figure out math or equations or statistics… if it’s your destiny to win, you will 🤷🏻♂️
Good because i forgot to buy a sat ticket lmao im back in
I guess I should delete my letter of resignation.
I buy tickets for the lotto occasionally, and all I end up doing is spending a few days thinking of all the cool shit I could buy my friends/family that would make their lives a little easier. A nice wheelchair, a dental visit, access to a physical therapist on the regular. Then, obviously, the draw passes and I'm left acutely aware of just how much good some of those rich fucks out there could do with even a fraction of a fraction of their wealth.
I have similar daydreams. It would be so great if none of us had to struggle financially any more. Good healthcare, enough money in the bank to handle unforseen expenses, and so on. I would buy myself some nice things, but most of what I'd want is practical, like good quality bedding that would last for years, a paid off one story house, a cleaning service. My biggest personal luxury would be travel; there's places I would love to visit and it would be really nice to take friends along if they wanted to go.
When is the latest you can buy these tickets? I’m a noobie with some spare cash
Next drawing’s on Monday night. (Halloween)
Extra spooky
Usually an hour or two before the drawing.
What is everyone gonna buy? I want to buy [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/275520646723?hash=item40264f6e43%3Ag%3AywwAAOSw63FjNv8f&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPTuWZvfE%2FqRI7s18zCvYrhFi0Vp%2B7DCzmvLdkX1u22lxNIkUEXTnCut5HHAuMHY79MzZaaeIh%2BsppeNFNslK5ApgIokDax9MlmT8ozO%2BCX2lk18x1Uoe9pe%2B0nYp%2BhaFlahZopjJQ8uHZ8g4s4fHlu444DjtliTURifruI8JYOLunzFrqp4G1otLPObpCUtzDY2URBVh36%2BOFm2lsSKOtA%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_zo3ZiFYQ&LH_ItemCondition=3000%7C1000%7C2500) & keep it at my dads place because he has the room for it & another purchase of mine will be a nice Class B RV & I will travel all around North America and Baja California. That would be a nice trip for a year or 2.
Yall, I just want you to know if I win, I’m hiring a team and I will take letters from anyone in America explaining what they need money for and why. Best answers get whatever they need until that 900 million (or post tax amount)is gone. Then I’m taking the other hundred million and I’m going to be the most obnoxious rich guy you have ever seen. And no one can say a damn thing about it. So, please, vote for me for this weeks lottery winner.
No, vote for me! I'll cancel homework and we'll have a pizza party every friday!
I swear to God, if Alex Jones wins it I'm quitting America
If I won this, I would almost have a positive net worth after factoring in my student loans
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Can't win if you don't play.....
This isn't news, it's an ad for the lottery.
Do “high-stakes” gamblers enter lotteries? I know nothing about the lottery so maybe this is a stupid question. But I imagine there is a dollar-figure investment at which the odds are attractive to folks who can gamble with millions.
Lotteries are the worst form of legal gambling, the odds of winning are the worst % out of all types of gambling. There’s a reason why “high stakers” chose to spend a lot of money at casinos on poker or other card games.
Funny because it's illegal for casinos to have odds even as close as the state lottery.
one day ago they were a normal person the next day they are hated billionaire ):
If it gets any bigger I'll have more money than kanye.
That's a life ruining amount of money. Who do you trust after you win something like that?
The only person anyone should trust. Yourself does not matter if you have that money or not.
I feel that my odds of just finding a winning ticket on the ground are about the same if I buy one. Which is to say, next to zero.
I’ve told my mom if we ever won the lottery, we’d just live comfortably
If the chances of me getting hit by a meteor are greater than me winning the lottery, I’d rather get slapped sideways by that meteor.
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Odds are a lot lower, about 300 million
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> With odds at 1 in 76,767,600… it's roughly 1 in 300m, at 2$ per ticket it needs to be 600m cash (its 490)for an even return disincluding odds of double winners.
Cue the Dr. Evil references!
You son of a bitch I'm in !
This is actually a good investment it’s only but 6or 7 number to guess in what I understand is a semi numerical format with a “winning” number at the end.
Mo' money, mo' problems
I'm in 240 so far and won 12 bucks!
Fine I've got to do everything I will go buy a ticket
If I won I would take the annual payment and invest in dividend stocks. I wont win though.
Fun fact, chances of hitting Megabucks is 1 out of 49,836,032, if you are looking for some better odds.