BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery

Subject: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Oct 18 - 08:53 AM

No one has won Mega Millions lotto since July so it has grown to 1 2/3 Billion.
Also Powerball is at a pithy 620 Million dollars.
If you win, an immediate pay out is about half the money.

If you do win you will have many new best friends

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 Oct 18 - 10:41 AM

The chances of winning are approximately the same as those of having Jeff Bezos randomly decide to give me $1.6 billion out of the goodness of his heart. I'm going to avoid a trip to the convenience store and just wait for Jeff to come through.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Oct 18 - 01:43 PM

Just think of all the good one could do with a sum of that size.
Instead of buying 'stuff' for myself, I'd be researching major charities and Third World projects. Perhaps malaria clinics, maternity units, child vaccination programmes, clean water initiatives, refugee aid, sewage systems, emergency hospital treatment... and on and on and on.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Oct 18 - 08:34 PM

I spend three quid a week on the lottery (one of my two tickets is shared with a mate). The only other gambling I ever do is a couple of quid on the Grand National. I've had the same numbers on the lottery since the very first day twenty-odd years ago, and I know them, so I daren't stop. Best I ever did was a hundred quid, four weeks after the start of the lottery. They know how to keep you in!

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Oct 18 - 08:19 AM

If I win Mudcat will get an invested trust fund, similar to the Nobel Prize so it would be a gift that keeps on going.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Oct 18 - 08:33 AM

I wonder if anyone has explored the legality and potential gain in income if they imposed a maximum win of say £10,000,000 and beyond that increased the number of winners? 100 chances to win a very substantial sum might lead to more sales than 1 chance to win an enormous amount.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Oct 18 - 06:50 PM

I only ever spend $1 on any of these tickets (versus buying a whole bunch at one time as I see many people do). You can't win if you don't have at least one ticket.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: meself
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 01:37 AM

If it reaches 2 billion I might buy a ticket. 1.6 billion? Not worth the walk down the street ......

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 10:50 AM

A minor reason why no one has won in ages is that the randomizer for automatic quick pick lottery tickets does not truly randomize. Then an air driven ping pong ball shuffler operates with different dynamics.
I gotta go buy a ticket now.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 07:58 PM

Dmcg I don't get it.

They say the odds of winning are the same as getting struck by lightning.

Well I was ! as some of you remember. The tree out front that was also struck was finally cut down last week.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: beardedbruce
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 08:04 PM

Odds of winning the lottery are several hundred times ( three orders of magnitude) less than the odds for being struck by lightning. A friend of mine has been struck twice.


But if you have a million different lottery tickets, your odds of winning are 1 in 302.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 09:48 PM

There is a single ticket on the front of the fridge. I'll check the numbers in the morning.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Oct 18 - 10:46 PM

I bought a ticket a week ago. (I didn't win.) I meant to get one today, but didn't, so nobody else better win my billion, dammit!

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 05:08 AM

I rarely forget to buy my ticket. When I do, I always avidly check to see if I'd have won. I did miss out on ten quid once, but that's the greatest damage my bad memory has ever wrought.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 07:19 AM

I don't buy it Steve. You will never know the self imposed damage or your change of fate, unless you have quantum future vision. You are better off without that Cassandra curse :^/ believe me I know.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 08:10 AM

So how much would it cost to buy every ticket combination? In theory could a billionaire pocket if he/she deos this make an instant profit?

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: beardedbruce
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 11:58 AM

Just under $605 million- BUT that does not include the cost in time to fill out the betting slips and buy the tickets.

Profit? Only if you are the only big winner. Otherwise you split it, and lose money.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Jos
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 01:03 PM

News item says it has been won by somebody in South Carolina.
If it's someone on here, would they tell us? (If it was me I'd keep very quiet about it.)

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 01:16 PM

Most States require winners to go public. But not MD.

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: Jos
Date: 24 Oct 18 - 01:24 PM

Not South Carolina either, according to the news item.
(I wouldn't even buy a ticket in a state that insisted on the winner going public.)

Subject: RE: BS: 1.6 BILLION lottery
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Oct 18 - 08:07 PM

It's not where you buy it, it's where you redeem the ticket.

The states have them in a pool that lets the prize go up faster.