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Subscribe to RSSPeople across the country are buying tickets for tonight's Mega Millions jackpot, which has ballooned to more than $540 million. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
High school teacher Joe Colacioppo is bright enough to calculate the odds that his lone Mega Millions ticket today will turn him into a $640-million-dollar man.
In fact, he took time to do the math: “There’s a greater chance of me winning the Nobel Peace Prize -- or of monkeys flying out of my butt, to quote ‘Wayne’s World.’ ”
So why did the social studies instructor at Smoky Hill High in Aurora, Colo. slap a dollar down on a lottery ticket for the first time in years, especially when the mathematical probability of his winning is 1-in-175 million?
AP
“It’s the same reason I bought ‘The Hunger Games’ -- I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. To say I’m a skeptic, that’s an understatement. But it’s fun to have a horse in the race,” Colacioppo added. “Unless it’s a record (jackpot), I never do it. I think most people who regularly don’t play the lottery but who are playing this time just think: Oh, it’s a buck and everybody’s in it, and isn’t it exciting?”
So from a psychological view, what’s the tipping point that finally tempts folks who rarely jump into the lottery pool to take flying a leap? It is $300 million, $400 million, $500 million? Or, like Colacioppo said, is it when the jackpot hits a new record and the lottery becomes national news, becomes trendy?
“Your question is a good one. But alas, I am not aware of any study that actually tries to quantify the tipping point,” said Romel Mostafa, assistant professor of business, economics, and public policy at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
But Mostafa, co-author of a 2008 study on low-income people who routinely purchase lottery tickets, did acknowledge that when those giant, flashing lotto-dollar signs gain more zeroes and more media coverage, many consumers just can’t help themselves.
“Usually, the larger the rewards and the lower the cost of buying lotteries, the greater the participation -- however the lower the winning probability,” Mostafa said.
“When the jackpots reach these insane amounts, the feeling becomes: I don't want to regret not having given myself the opportunity,” agreed Issamar Ginzberg, a Brooklyn-based strategy adviser to entrepreneurs. For the first time in his life, he bought not one ticket but 10.
Then again, Ginzberg -- a Hasidic rabbi -- also injects a bit of faith into the gambling equation: “You have to give God the ability to give you money in a natural manner,” he said. “What good is praying for money if you don’t enable (God) to give it to you? You have to buy a ticket to be in the game!”
Here’s one of the funny things about we humans: We don’t naturally calculate probabilities, said June Foley, professor of behavioral and social sciences at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
“We calculate the odds through a very strange mechanism called the availability heuristic,” she said. “You guess the likelihood that something is going to happen based on how easy it is to think of an example of that thing happening.”
In other words, the quicker you’re able picture an event occurring, the more likely you are to believe it can. This is why -- despite the low odds on aircraft crashes and high number of vehicle accidents -- some people just refuse to fly and only drive from place to place.
Lotteries do, generally, attract large quantities of low-income ticket buyers. The best psychological explanation, Foley said, is that when people lose all their belief in social mobility, even the remote odds of the lottery seem like a worthwhile wager of their few bucks.
“They think: ‘If there’s no chance that I can really get rich through my own means, the only mechanism I have is the lottery,’ ” Foley said.
Of course, many of the lottery newbies are well-paid, well-off people -- or at least have enough education to grasp their true odds.
And then there are those folks who are highly schooled yet can’t quite get their heads around this whole Mega Millions thing.
Alicia Gay moved to New York City a few years ago and now works for the American Civil Liberties Union. As the possible lottery payoff loomed, she was mulling a ticket buy.
"Having an east coast liberal elitist moment,” Gay posted on Facebook Thursday afternoon. “I want to purchase a Mega Millions ticket but don't really know what this means or how to do so. #shame.”
Five hours later, Gay had figured it out.
"Actually," she revealed via email, "on my way to get it now (nervous!)"
Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.”
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I happily plunk down $5 every so often for the slim (almost non-existent) chance of never having to work again...
Ms. Gay, what is so difficult about the concept of a lottery?
You can't win if you don't play. I know the odds are impossible, but a buck these days doesn't buy much anyway.
It is worth a dollar to most people to be able to fantasize winning all of that much money. To anybody who really understands what those odds mean, however, it would require a suspension of disbelief bordering on lunacy to think that they had any chance of winning. I'll do something else with my dollar, thank you.
You are wasting money. 4 dollars to be exact. You should wait to buy one ticket in 5 drawings rather than 5 tickets for one drawing. The answer is logical based on math. If you buy zero tickets you have exactly zero chance of winning. If you buy one ticket, you have 1 in 175 million chance. The increase in odds of you winning went from ZERO to SOMETHING, sure the SOMETHING is still small, but its SOMETHING, this increase from ZERO to 1 in 175 million increases your odds of winning by a factor of infinity. The SECOND ticket you buy does not increase your odds of winning hardly at all. One dollar buys you infinite increase in odds of winning, that's worth it, The second dollar buys you essentially zero increase to your odds of winning. You should only ever buy ONE ticket per drawing. The rest you are throwing away you have essentially the same odds of winning if you buy one ticket or if you buy 100.
People win the lottery all the time. Why not me? I'll hapilly drop $20 bucks for the chances to win.
@x1134x - I've heard your argument many times, and it's incorrect. If you buy 2 tickets you have double the chance of winning. It's basic math. 1/175m + 1/175m = 2/175m = 1/87.5m. So buying 175 tickets increases your chances of winning from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 1 million. How can that be? Simple - imagine that 1 million people each purchase 175 tickets with unique numbers. The end result is the 1 million people will have purchased a total of 175 million tickets encompassing all possible combinations, and one of those 1 million people will win the jackpot - so each of those 1 million people has a 1 in 1million chance of winning.
Also, it makes far more sense to bet more money when the jackpot is huge as the expected return - even after taxes - is greater than the cost of the bet.
@ x1134x
Assuming there are 176 million possible combinations and only looking at your odds of winning the jackpot your chances are:
Chance of winning with 0 tickets: 0/176,000,000
Chance of winning with 1 ticket: 1/176,000,000
Chance of winning with 2 tickets: 2/176,000,000
Chance of winning with n tickets: n/176,000,000
Each ticket you buy increases your odds of winning by 1/176,000,000 right on up to the 176 millionth ticket you buy at which point your odds of winning become 176,000,000/176,000,000 or 100%
After that, your odds of winning don't increase anymore (although, who would buy 176 million lotto tickets?).
I think it is about hope.
Sure, we all know that in all likelihood we aren't going to win. But the possibility that we might not actually have to work another day in our lives gives us hope that just maybe we'll be the lucky one.
That being said I purchased my first ticket in quite a few years yesterday.
I never understood why people buy tickets only when the jackpot is high, 5 million bucks is not enough?
Not a math guy by nature, so I'll refrain from embarrassing myself with regard to the "odds-calculation" debate (haha). I will say, however, that the purchase of a lottery ticket isn't really a rational, objective choice. It's an emotional choice. That is, you don't buy a lottery ticket because you think you're going to win. You buy a lottery ticket -- as Iowa-Guy astutely noted above -- because a dollar is a small price to pay for "hope," regardless of how slim that hope may actually be.
Assuming that you hold no duplicates. This is why buying multiple tickets really does nothing to increase your odds. All of the duplicate combinations.
Amused - that makes no sense. The potential for duplicate combinations doesn't change the benefit of buying multiple tickets unless if you specifically purchase 2 tickets with the same combo yourself. Even if you Quick Pick 100 tickets the chances that you're going to have 2 the same are tiny, so you would still increase your chances of winning by 100x.
On my own I would never waste my resources on something like this, but I am happy to blow a few bucks once in a while to give my spouse an opportunity to daydream about what we could do the winnings.
Thus, I am rewarded for participating whether I win, or lose.
@x1134x, you are incorrect. 5 tickets gives you 5 unique separate changes of winning (assuming that you are not stupid enough to select the same set of numbers 5 times). True, each SET of numbers has the same 175 million to 1 odds of being a match but as long as you choose different sets of numbers then you actually are increasing your odds of matching all 6 numbers.
Math isn't my strong point. How do they arrive at the 1/175million odds?
You have to pick 5 numbers between 1-56 and one number between 1-46, correct? So the chance of you picking the first number correctly = 1/56, right? 2nd number = 1/55 because the first number drawn can't come up again, right? And so on, until the mega ball which would be 1/46, right?
1/56 x 1/55 x 1/54 x 1/53 x 1/52 x 1/46 = 21,085,384,320 number combinations, right?
So wouldn't your odds be 1/21billion? Or did I totally screw things up math-wise?
The probability of almost anything else happening (being struck by lightning, becoming President of the US, etc., etc.) are less than the odds of winning the MegaMillions Jackpot.
I don't care, I still put down 2 bucks for a dream.
All those lower class uneducated people haven't given up on their ability in life to make it rich, they're not intelligent enough to figure the odds. If they were, they wouldn't plump down their last dollars on a lottery ticket.
This is probability, so the odds of winning the big jackpot really don't increase with additional tickets. Only one can be the winner and it has a 1 in 175,000,000 probability. The rest of the tickets are losers since only one can win so you still only have one chance no matter how many tickets you buy. Buying more, however, may increase your odds of winning some of the smaller prizes for 2, 3, 4 numbers or the mega-ball. We had a lottery pool at work and shared a hundred tickets and we won something like ten bucks total to share, which we gave to the guy who actually bought them.
And even though buying 172 million tickets would seem to be 100%, it's still probability, so unless you covered every possible combination that could ever come up, there is no 100% since some will be duplicates. If you did somehow cover every case, then even then you may end up sharing it with several others plus paying your tax share, so even a guaranteed win may not yield much more than your initial investment or could pay back less and that's not even counting the time and effort to fill in and process all of those entries making sure you didn't miss any combinations. It's like betting every number on a roulette table. You're guaranteed to win, but you won't get all of your money back unless maybe if you happen to hit a zero or double zero.
I'm surprised that so many people disregard the opportunity to play the Megaplier option. Yes, it doubles your ticket price. However, your odds are better at matching 5 or less number's, and this option at minimum doubles your prize. People who pool their money are limiting the potential amount to be divided. To me, there's not much difference of taking at chance at a cost one dollar or at two dollar's. With the likelihood higher that you'll be splitting the prize with others, I'd truly regret winning the $250,000, when it could have been $1,000,000 - because the odds you'd every win twice is higher than the 1/176M.
JoeyJoeJoJunior,
Your math is right if the order of the first five have to match exactly, but because they can be in any order, you have to then divide that by (5x4x3x2x1) which gives you 175,711,536 which is pretty close. It's either off by rounding or they somehow figure the odds a bit differently for these.
In reponse to JoeyJoeJoJunior's comment:
====================================================
Math isn't my strong point. How do they arrive at the 1/175million odds?
You have to pick 5 numbers between 1-56 and one number between 1-46, correct? So the chance of you
picking the first number correctly = 1/56, right? 2nd number = 1/55 because the first number drawn can't come up again, right? And so on, until the mega ball which would be 1/46, right?
1/56 x 1/55 x 1/54 x 1/53 x 1/52 x 1/46 = 21,085,384,320 number combinations, right?
So wouldn't your odds be 1/21billion? Or did I totally screw things up math-wise?
======================================================
The number of distinct combinations is actually 56C5 * 46C1 = (56 * 55 * 54 * 53 * 52 * 46) / (5 * 4 * 3 * 2) = 175,711,536
mike-464493 and cm2005, Thanks!
I bought a ticket, first one ever because I normally don't believe in wasting my cash. But just because this pot is so huge, I figured I'd buy one to say I was a part of it. Win or nothing, doesn't matter :)
1/56 × 1/55 × 1/54 × 1/53 × 1/52 × 1/51 = 1/23377273920
So, at this point, your odds of winning are 1 in 23,377,273,920. But, since you can choose your winning numbers in any order, your chances of winning are better. Your chance improves by the number of different ways that a sequence of 6 numbers can be written down, which for 6 numbers is 6! (6 factorial) or 720. Divide 23,377,273,920 by 720 to account for this, to get 32,468,436.
In other words, there are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
Think about what you're saying and you'll see why that makes no sense. Each additional ticket gives you an additional chance to win. While it's undoubtedly true that going from 0 chances of winning (not buying a ticket) to 1:175m chances of winning (buying your first ticket) is the biggest jump in odds, you still increase your chances of winning with each additional ticket.
I think the confusion stems from people thinking - well, if you buy 1000 tickets there are still 174,999,000 possible numbers, and the difference between 174,999,000 and 174,999,999 is tremendously small.
That's true, but the difference between 1 in 175 million chance and 1 in 175 thousand chance is also tiny - way smaller than it sounds like, as in both instances you have almost no chance of winning. That doesn't take away from the fact that 2 tickets gives you exactly double the chance of winning as 1 ticket.
At the 540 million mark, the cash payout is supposed to be 460 million before taxes and it's already at 640 and possibly will be 750 million by tonight drawing. So I would give my family members 20 million a piece (I have a family of 5). Then I would retire, go to live out my live on a beach with a nice home and cars. I would donate money to the food banks because that is important to me. And then my biggest hobby would be to bang as many pornstar and playboy models who escort UTR (under the radar) or above as I can. I would make it a weekend thing for me to order up girls for that.
It's so much fun to watch the geeks pull out their slide rules to go to war with those who use an abacus...
I never gamble or buy lottery tickets -- not even this time.
If I wanted the "thrill" of hoping to win, I could always write down the numbers I WOULD have bet if I chose to waste money. Then, when you see that the numbers you wrote down did not match the winning numbers, you have the same outcome as if you had spent (wasted, thrown away) money.
Unfortunately, it's often the people who can least afford to waste their money who buy lottery tickets. This is a lopsided way for states to get money for schools, etc. However, since buying a lottery ticket is a personal choice, there's little clamoring for outlawing lotteries; it's seen as an almost free source of revenue.
Steve, the first ticket you buy increases your odds of winning from zero. This is an increase in odds by a factor of infinity, the rest of the purchases indeed double the odds, but the double miniscule odds and double miniscule is still miniscule. But from absolutely zero to something is INFINITE.
If you take the same say 5 dollars and spread over 5 drawings, the odds of your 5 tickets hitting also increases because you get multiple draws on your 1/175million vs one draw on 5/175 million.
The best dream you can buy for a buck.
'What would you do if...?' is probably a good question for everyone for perspective once in a while.
When the unclaimed jackpot gets big enough, like in this case, the expected return is greater than the ticket price:
540M$ prize/175M:1 odds = $3.08 expected return. After deducting for taxes and the chance that there will be multiple winners, the expected return is still larger than the ticket price, so it makes sense to try.
Also, any time the prize is large enough to live off the interest, when you measure it in hours, the return is infinite. You need to work some fraction of an hour to earn the ticket price, but you and your descendents will not have to work forever, assuming you invest the money prudently.
This isn't really complex math, but unfortunately very few people understand it even that much.
Your calculation is a little off in that you have to use the net present value of the winnings, which is less than 540M. If you take the current up-front payoff value, that might be around 250M or so. So, on that basis (minus taxes), probably still getting higher payoff to cost, but it is more like $1.50. One other complicating factor is that with so many people buying tix, there is a certain probability that the pot has to be split among more than one person. So that lowers, the expected return by some factor also. So, a little more complicated than you present.
CM - true, but figure that every 175M tickets sold you'll have 1 winner on average, so the more tickets that are sold the higher the probability that the JP will be split - but also the more money there is to split in the first place.
Note that now the JP is $640M with a $462M cash option. The fed takes 25% off the top and states with no or low income tax take 5% - 10% so you're left with at most $346M. Then you'll have to pay additional income taxes on that.
What you're both missing is that there are payouts for many things other than just hitting the jackpot. These factor into your expected return in a big way. You can hit 5 numbers (no mega) and still win $250K for example. Even picking just the mega gives you $2 for your $1 bet. There's a 1:40 chance that you'll win at least $2, and when you factor that into your overall chances then your expected return is much higher than $1 even on a split pot.
Rich:
You are correct that I left out the additional payoff possibilities. However, if you figure the probability of winning each of these outcomes by the dollar amount of the winnings, the additional contribution to the average value of each ticket is minimal...probably no more than an additional 10 cents or so. Also, isn't the highest federal marginal tax rate 36%, not 25%? Bottom line for me...I would only consider playing this lottery when the jackpot gets over $400 million or so. So I guess I will go out and buy a lottery ticket (or 10 as I think that brings my probability of winning up to the level of being struck by lightning) today!
Unless you buy every combination,...there is no guarantee that ANYONE holds a winning ticket tonight,...further adding to the mystique.
CM - Federal tax laws are 25% off the top for gambling winnings. Not sure if they double dip and hit you with income tax in addition or not - but I know 25% goes to the fed before the winner sees a dime.
In the UK it's better - as you're gambling with money that's already been taxed, there's no tax on the winnings of lotteries, or at least that's what I've heard.
The expected winnings are ALWAYS more than the price of the lottery ticket, or else no one would play. Why do people post that you should play when the winnings are more than the price of a ticket?
I explain the odds like this; play the number that hit last week, sure it'll never hit, but it has the same odds as any other number.
you never know and look at how many people you could make happy
The philosophy is simple and powerful: any chance at all beats none.
Many things being done have little chance of paying off- like looking for a good job.
You can find some work - but good work is hard to find. I met a guy on Tuesday while breaking for lunch who had an MBA. He was smart, personable, articulate- and he was cleaning a restroom because it was the best paying job he'd found over two years of looking.
He's still sending out resumés, but in the interim, he's just squeaking by.
I'm there! I was a school music teacher for 7 years until budget cuts ended my position 4 years ago. I have a Masters degree in educational technology and I am currently working as a classroom aid for a special needs child making $12 an hour and if he misses school or if their is a holiday break, I lose the hours.
Even with the odds being so far out of reach I got a ticket and have enjoyed thinking about what I would do with the money. It has been a nice distraction from the every day worries of how am I going to feed my family and have electricity, gas in the car, a place to live, etc.
I pledge to all who read this that if I win I will dedicate my life and fortune to helping people. Of course I will upgrade my own life style and establish generations of financial stability for my family, but with that kind of money I could change the lives of so many people as well.
I hear that. I lost my teaching job two years ago, and am now a part time instructor at a local college. All of the colleges around here, are reporting massive drops in enrollment for their education programs, and people who are enrolled in education, leaving for other majors. I wonder what all of these school districts are going to do in 10 to 20 years, when all of their present teachers begin to retire, and there is no one to replace them.
I mean, I'd be happy with the 250K! I'd even be happy with 10K... whatever the Universe throws my way.. I will happily take. However I am in it for the big bucks!! Good luck everyone, think positive and you shall receive :-)
You're all too late anyway.
“What good is praying for money if you don’t enable (God) to give it to you?" in other words "God helps those who help themselves". Amen Rabbi! (or what ever it is Jewish people say instead of Amen)...
the root of evil is money do you really want evil ?
I've been too good my whole life. I'm SO ready for some evil!
Frank, Money is NOT the root of all evil.
The correct phrase is "The Love of money is the root of all evil". Money is a necessity in this world, loving money to the point of greed and corruption is the root of all evil.
So to anwser your question, no I don't want evil, but I would enjoy winning a truckload of money.
AMEN! Think positive..... If I am to acheive anything ...I must first expect it!.... And I DO!... It's on it's way to me now! :)
You're all too late anyway.
All I know it will be one big payday for someone, good luck to all that put in tickets or is going to!! No matter what the odds, the fact of the matter is someone WILL hit the jackpot at some point.
My thoughts exactly! I figure I have just as much of a chance of winning with one ticket as the person who WILL eventually win. Good luck everyone!
I play MM or PB about every two months or so. twenty bucks, I blow more than that on sodas, etc. So why not take a chance on winning millions. I purchased my lottery tickets for this weeks drawing. Here's hoping and praying..... At least I have a small chance of winning and if I do win will thank God for his goodness in letting me be blessed and will make sure to help others less fortunate.
You're all too late anyway.
I understand the impetus behind the article, but I feel it is just way too over-analytical. I've boiled it down to this: Yes, I know the odds are crazy. However, people do win the lottery, all the time. Why not me? Simple as that. The chance to win hundreds of millions of dollars is worth a few bucks to me.
Exactly, no matter how the staticians or mathmaticians spin the odds, the fact is SOMEONE(S) will win and you have a infinte 0% probability of winning if you don't play.
It's same reason people use to play the World Series of Poker. Because someone is going to win millions of dollars and the odds of 6000 to 1 are much better.
Put Kickyourace in Google and you'll see what I mean.
If no single human being EVER won the lottery, it would be a waste of time. However, people DO win. So why the hell not buy a few tickets? What's the harm? Yeah, yeah, it's a tax on stupid people, etc., I've heard all the typical reasoning from detractors, but every once in a while folks actually walk away a winner. I'm sure those who've won huge payouts in the past thought "Man, I'm wasting my money doing this". But I guarantee they were glad they'd 'wasted' their money when the winning numbers were announced. Will I win? Probably not. But COULD I win? Of course. Someone always wins in the end.
You know....with how much the jackpot is you could just buy every combination possible, and if you were the only winner you would come out ahead for sure....but I guess if you had the money to do it, hopefully you wouldn't be wasting it on lotto tickets.
I've thought about that, and there was actually an analysis on the news showing that money aside, it's impossible to do. They estimated it would take 28 years to fill out 176,000,000 lottery tickets. On top of that, it would use up all the lottery machine ink and lottery machine paper supply in the US.
I like to see someone rich & stupid enough to buy $176 million for every combo possible..and then have to share it with three other winners who paid a $1 each.
The math behind buying every ticket. It doesn't work unless you have huge jackpot numbers...
http://www.goodbonusguide.com/general-articles/what-happens-if-you-buy-every-combination-of-lottery-tickets.html
I spend a couple bucks here and there and am in a lottery pool at work too. Is it ultimately a waste of money? Sure. But I look at it as someone has to win, and the people who do win were sitting there thinking the same thing that they have no chance. Sure anyone who spends insane amounts of money and views this is a good way at getting rich is stupid, other than that though, who cares.
Plus, when it gets crazy high you get to think about all the other ridiculous things that you have a much better chance of happening to you. Better chance of becoming president, better chance of getting struck by lightning 3 times in your life time, better chance of getting 2 hole in ones in the same round of golf. Or my personal favorite, better odds of seriously injuring yourself using an opposite handed instrument(i.e. something made for a left hander when you're a right hander)
6whitewalls, not quite, you have to multiply 56*56*56*56*56*56 to get the total possible combinations....that comes out to 30,840,979,456 (roughly 31 Billion combinations) so no, you would definitely NOT come out on top if you bought every combination possible.
For those that say it's a waste of money....gambling loses are tax deductable folks!
Actually the math is off, after you draw the first ball you no longer have 56 choices. Also the last ball is only out of 46. So it is 56x55x54x53x52 then you divide by 5x4x3x2x1 and then multiple by 46. That comes out to 175.7 million.
Kelly, he's correct. Not to mention the lottery themselves have always said those are the odds. 176,000,000 combinations. In fact, there's another article I think right here on MSNBC(this was before it was up to 640) that showed putting aside the fact its impossible to play all combinations, if one could, they would still come out $117,000,000 ahead after taxes, assuming no other winners.
Don't forget all the other non-jackpot prizes you would win too, for hitting 4/5 numbers, 3/5 numbers, etc. If someone played every possible combination, those would add to the winnings as well.
Kelly, gambling losses are only deductible up to the amount of your winnings.
If you claim no winnings, you can't deduct losses....
I'm a girl....
I read a NBA player got $10,000 worth of tickets..I figure the rich can do that..but my $5 worth is just as good to me.
19 32 37 40 41 (14) numbers from heaven.
I'm going to play those same numbers. Now best case senario is that you just cost yourself $300 million.
the root of all evil is money why do you think we have so many politicians so rich these days. Do you really want evil in your life the root of evil is money.
With this big Jackpot..I love evil.
Actually the quote is "the love of money is the root of all evil".
the LOVE of money is the root of all evil - money itself is an inanimate object, which by definition cannot be evil - greed, greed is evil
I would take the lump sum, pay the taxes and still have enough to give very person in the US a million dollars each....hopefull the winner will do exactly that (fat chance).
Population of the USA is about 311 million people..it be a dollar each not a million each. Guess you failed math..huh
whoever said that lottery is tax for people who are bad at math was probably thinking of you.
Flower. How stupid are you feeling right now? Talk about comment remorse!
Don't give us any money. Make a large donation to your high school...they need new teachers.
Oh, after giving every person in the US a million each, that would still leave me with 80 million to spare.
Can you change this ten dollar bill for two twentys..please.
You really need to rethink your math.
Flower, giving each person in the US a million dollars would = 311,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 311,000,000,000,000 . If the person willing the lottery wanted to spread their winnings to the US citizens, each citizen would receive roughly $1. ($640,000,000 / 2 (cash option and taxes) / 310,000,000). Buy a calculator.
Regular people are selling Mega tickets in Florida at $3 for a quick pick ticket. Florida doesn't sell Mega Millions tickets.
entrepenurial spirit.
Florida is home to crazy gunslingers
very illegal - and if one of those tickets wins, probably will void the ticket and get the seller arrested as they have video of who buys the tickets and records of when and where each ticket was sold