QOTD: Will you be buying a ticket?
DES MOINES, Iowa — No one won the latest Mega Millions drawing, meaning the jackpot climbs to a staggering $1.6 billion.
Mega Millions officials say no tickets matched all six numbers to claim the estimated $1 billion grand prize in Friday night’s drawing. The numbers were 15, 23, 53, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 7.
The next drawing will be Tuesday.
With the jackpot currently tied with the record-setting lottery jackpot and bound to grow before the next drawing, it is bound to become the largest prize in U.S. history.
The jackpot has been growing since July, when a group of California office workers won $543 million.
It costs $2 to play the game, but the odds of winning the jackpot aren’t good. The chance of matching all six numbers and taking home the grand prize is one in 302.5 million.
Mega Millions is played in 44 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
I have a question.
Do you think it’s possible the lottery can be rigged to a desired winner?
The only game that can’t be rigged is Solitaire. Hundreds of millions of dollars? Hell yes it can be rigged and I’d be surprised if it isn’t.
Years ago there was a company that when a lotto jackpot grew to a sufficient amount it would buy every permutation of numbers possible to guarantee they would have a winning ticket. Thus if the jackpot was $20 million and the odds of winning 10 million to one this made sense since the only risk was another player also having a winning ticket and the prize being split 2 or 3 ways.
The various Lotto games prohibited this computer generated ticket purchasing to end this option but that does not mean that insiders could not rig the numbers selected though it would be hard to guarantee you would have the winning ticket in a game with over 300 million possible outcomes.
No
Huh,the odds are worse then lizzy being a Cherokee,that is not good odds!
Yes!! Here in Canuckistan when the jackpot reaches it’s maximum payout of $60M
the prize almost always goes to the province of Quebec.
Q: if I win this $1,600,000,000 lotto, will I become the greatest investor of all time?
One of the guys came around to collect donations to play the lottery. Then he came around again. I said I would not play the next time around and he started with the old – you can’t win if you don’t play. I’ve heard that line for some 30 years.
What would I buy? My wife is worth a lot. She’s a stripper (she doesn’t know that) a cook, a housekeeper, a companion, I can hold her hand in public (you can’t do that with a lover) take to dinner, even attempt to seduce her without getting arrested for molestation…
I don’t have lottery dreams anymore. But it would be nice to make it to heaven. That’s hitting the lottery big time!
I already have a couple of thousand dollars STOLEN from me every year to pay for the worthless day prisons that masquerade as schools. I get absolutely NOTHING in return for that theft. At least a ticket or two would give me the financial means to walk away from all of this (not sure where my wife and I would go) if I won. The payout is more than worth the few dollar chance. That probably would not be enough to buy Facebook or Twitter and shut it down…would it? But it might be more than enough to get a few freedom-oriented alternatives off the ground.
Hell yeah, I’m buying a ticket. If I win, I’ll become the George Soros of the right, starting a multi-level organization of PACs to fund every shit-poasting memelord from Miami to Seattle.
It’s only $1.6B or $800M after taxes. Besides, money has a habit of changing your heart like the Spiderman symbiote, it will be hard to let go of it.
Actually, TC, it’s like a woman. You think you could tap that once and that would be it – hit it and quit it. No such luck. Hitting the lottery is not as lucky as it might seem.
The lump sum is more like $600M. The $1.6B is the sum of the annuity.
You wouldn’t be the George Soros of anything; but I’d be pretty pleased with $600 million, though.
I found this handy-dandy calculator
http://www.afterlotto.com/mega-millions-taxes
Which tells us that, after 5.5% North Carolina Taxes, the lump sum is $698 million.
Then, Fedgov takes half.
So, the net on a Jackpot advertised as $1.6B is actually about $350 million. Nothing to sneeze at, but a huge fraud nonetheless.
I let the gal at the store talk me into one , I got 3 numbers, think it pays 10 bucks. I only play when some hot gal talks me into it.
Yes, I’m a sucker.
Yeah.
I know the odds; I know it’s probably a dead loss. But ….
I was playing it last week with rollovers. I had three drawings in a row covered, and no one won!
The next one’s GOT to be mine, right? At least part?
Yeah, I know the odds. Gonna play anyway. Have to drive 1.5 hours to do so, our pols don’t like “gambling”…
What do they think VOTING is? A sure thing? HAH!
Let me think – if I buy $100 worth if tickets, my expected return is $0.01, and $99.99 goes into the govt coffers. What to do, what to do.
Lagavulin is $99.99 at the moment. Problem solved.
That’s priced about 50% higher than here. I’m not a big Scotch guy, but I usually keep it around for my friends. Aussie taxes?
for $2 I get to fantasize for an hour or two about all the wonderful things I could do with the money….save the world and party with hot strippers while doing it. Wooo-hoo……Sshhhhhh don’t let my wife hear us.
Do not pull a boat guy and end up in the dog house. TBP should have a Safe For Wife rating on articles.