Money
FEELING LUCKY?
Lottery fever is breaking out as two of the biggest jackpots top $1.4 billion dollars combined.
(… never mind the 1 in 88 quadrillion odds)
gotta be in it to win it
Money
Why Have A Lottery?
- In theory, a lottery raises money (to contribute in addition to taxes) for initiatives like education.
- A multi-state lottery like Powerball distributes a portion of the sales to participating states.
- Over the years, many have debated whether or not lottery money significantly contributes to named projects.
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Placing Your Bets?
What to Know:
- MEGA MILLIONS: Drawing Friday at 11pm ET for $970M jackpot (2nd largest lottery prize behind $1.58B Powerball jackpot won in 2016.) Lump sum payout: $513 million.
- POWER BALL: Drawing Saturday at 10:59pm ET for $430M jackpot. Lump sum payout: $248M.
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History on Their Side?
- Lucky 6th Numbers:
#22 or #9 (Mega Ball)
#26 (Powerball) - State with Most Winners:
New York (Mega Millions)
Indiana (Powerball) - You pick or let the machine pick?
Odds are the same.
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Why the Monster Jackpots
Powerball & Mega Millions both changed their rules in recent years to increase the chances of winning smaller prizes, but make it more difficult to take home the jackpot.
After the change, odds of winning Powerball lowered, from 1 in 175M to 1 in 292M, analysis found. But the odds of a billion dollar jackpot are 7.5 times more.
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U.S. lottery ticket sales totaled more than $80 billion annually, in the most recent data. That's more than Americans spent on movies, video games, books, music and sports tickets combined. Good luck!
Read
Sources
- Mega Millions jackpot jumps to $970M as drawing approaches:
https://apnews.com/b2f260860e37474c88f06f8caeafaaba - You’re lucky! You get another shot at Powerball’s bigger $430M jackpot or Mega Millions’ $970M:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/18/lottery-fever-powerball-mega-millions-jackpot/1684291002/ - Mega Millions Jackpot: Most Common Numbers Drawn:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2018/10/18/mega-millions-jackpot-most-common-numbers/ - Which State Has the Most Powerball Winners:
http://time.com/money/4912174/states-most-powerball-winners/ - Here are the states with the most Mega Millions jackpot winners: https://abcnews.go.com/US/states-mega-millions-jackpot-winners/story?id=56807874
- New Powerball Odds Could Give America Its First Billionaire (FROM 2016):
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/new-powerball-odds-could-give-america-its-first-billion-dollar-jackpot/[ - Interesting Editorial: The U.S. has a lottery problem. But it’s not the people buying tickets.:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/09/13/the-u-s-has-a-lottery-problem-but-its-not-the-people-buying-tickets/