The Mega Half-Billion!

So, anyone caught lottery fever yet?

With $540 billion at stake, whats a few bucks down the drain?

I've put in at work, and I'll buy a few tomorrow. But I haven't gone out and spent $80 on tickets like someone else I know.

 

I know the odds, have never played before in my life but I dropped $20 bucks on it.

Not expecting to win anything, but it is nice to play. Just to say we have our chances like everyone else.

 

No lotto in Utah.

 

Do I? DO I???

 

http://www.megamillions.com/

42 states I think, sorry that Alaska is being lame...

 

So....that is what is considered cool in Alaska? I see.

 

I've never bought into the lottery, but this is some historic shit... at least that's the hype to get people to buy more tickets.

 

Here's what I dont get...if a person has a bucketload of money, why not just buy $174 million worth of lottery tickets and guarantee a win? Or is that unlikely? I suppose the other risk is having multiple winners and needing to share the jackpot, though dont some states guarantee a no-share win if the jackpot is hit?

 

Well, while that is extremely time consuming and risky, theoretically it would work since there are 176 million combinations.

Put do the math this way, if you bought 10 tickets every second, it would take 202 days to get all the combinations you need. In addition, it prints a max of 10 lines per slip, so that is 17.6 million pieces of paper you need to keep and organize.

That being said, it would net anywhere from 100 million to 230 million profit after taxes and the payout type are added in depending on the state. This assumes you are the only winner, just one other person wins and you are screwed and risk having almost no profit at all, or even losing money.

 

Were you listening to NPR today too?

 

Its probably impossible unless your hired hundreds of people to buy and organize tickets for you. Probably thousands of people to have enough time. And there are still a ton of other people out therr with tickets so if someone else wins too youre out money. Pretty risky and silly imo.

 

That doesn't look like a tripod!

Also, was it a 50/50 or something, or was the winner a charity..?

 

WET BLANKET!!!!

 

My family coerced me to buy some tickets.

If I win...well, I don't have to worry so much anymore about college loans.