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if the prize isn't 2 billion, the ticket's not worth the 2 bucks

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Conspiracy theorists in me wonders if anyone really ever wins the big jackpots or if it’s just a scam. . .

Conspiracy theories about things that can easily be proven true or false should never become conspiracy theories.

The jackpot's elbows are too sharp, wouldn't bang buy a ticket

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my fingers will remain uncrossed as i'm more likely to get hit by 3 separate bolts of lightning next Tuesday at 0843 than win Mega Millions. lol

You can't win if you don't play. Its just two bucks and it could change your life forever

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They should somehow alter it to 640 one million winners. Change some lives instead of changing one life.

Yeah the math doesn't work but irrationality isn't based on math. Every year or so I'll randomly buy a ticket, it is useful to dream for a few minutes about what if....

A "theory" is based on real evidence.

>$640 million

Just imagine, for $2, you win $640 million, which is still a huge number. Maybe you and your son or your grandson and your grandson's grandson won't get that much wealth 🤷‍♀️

I’ll believe it when I win it.

In my experience, conspiracy theories aren't typical evidence based. They are usually based on hearsay and conjecture.

I agree with you 100% and I can’t believe you got downvoted. Well, I guess I can, but it makes sense to distribute a broader amount of wealth instead of giving such a massive amount to one person who will either fail epically or horde it their whole life, with a slim chance of doing good things. The chances of having a positive impact on society are much greater, both in improving peoples lives directly, and giving many people the power to improve the lives of people around them. There are so many hundreds of millions of dollars jackpots that every American could eventually end up with a million dollars… is that not something we all want? Or do we only want to be millionaires of it’s not something many other people are…

They (and you) are getting downvoted because it's ridiculously easy to find the list of winners, and if you're thinking the more rational possibility is that they're all paid actors, you need professional help.

>There are so many hundreds of millions of dollars jackpots that every American could eventually end up with a million dollars

Not quite. For every American to get 1million, there would have had to be 300,000,000,000,000 in lottery. 300 trillion. The amount given out so far is not even 1 trillion.

I don’t know what you’re talking about, it seemingly has nothing to do with what I said…

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To recap, OP said they wonder whether anyone ever really wins the big jackpots or it's a big scam. You chimed in saying you agree 100% and don't understand the downvotes. Hopefully you understand them now.

Oh I didn’t realize he said that🤦🏻‍♂️ I was agreeing with something else he said and should have made that clear

It's the only damn thing they said...

Oh fuck i replied to the wrong comment

I was mid joint while reading a responding

What if you exclude children and only include tax paying individuals beneath a certain income limit?

So only 50 trillion then, when not even 1 trillion has been given out in all lotteries ever. Still quite a ways off.

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#CJ: "Ah shit, here we go again."

Okay, 25,000 to each person once 1 trillion is achieved

I realize how stupid this all is. Thank you

LOL...family spent $400 on those scratch off tickets... in total, 1 FREE winner, and two $5 winners.

Lottery is tax for the stupid, and yet... I won $5 !!! LOL...

I had absolutely nothing to do at work yesterday so I bought a ticket on my lunch break and spent the rest of the afternoon browsing through million dollar mansions in Mexico. Best $2 I ever spent.

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But at $2 billion, the math does work. Like not much, but the expected value passes the cost of a ticket around there.

First the amount is halved if you take it as a lump sum and the annuity has a shit interest rate, then you have to factor in taxes. I haven’t done the math you are probably right that at $2b jackpot the numbers may make sense. There is also the fact that you may have to split the prize

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If I win, I will give the 640 next closest tickets $100,000

I had a co-worker spout a conspiracy theory that would've required THOUSANDS of people to be in on it and he saw it as quite legit.

I asked him if his family had any secrets and he replied "Yes, of course" and I then I said "Do you know any you're not supposed to?" and he said "A few, yes". I hit him with "If the people in your family that want a secret can't keep it as such, how do you think thousands of strangers would do so?"

He hoped on the "Well they'd all be killed or dead if they said anything...". I tapped out.

In America, whether, you pay, win, or lose. The price is never the one indicated.

That'd be a great marketing for the game. Imagine if they announce there will be a thousand winners getting $100,000 instead of one person getting $100 million. That can be a live changing event for quite a few people

Almost like astronomically small odds and millions of tickets sold makes more money

Yep some people swear by it tho. Rather own a lottery than buy it

That would be if the lottery were meant to make a difference. But it’s meant to make money.

They found that bigger prizes sold more tickets and generated more profits, so they changed the US lotteries a few years back to lower the chances of winning and drop the lower prizes, purely to drive bigger jackpots and sell more tickets.

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arent those just scratch tickets?

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Most lottery games offer smaller prizes but better odds. They probably do more damage than the mega millions though. If you win small prizes sometimes I imagine it makes it more attractive to compulsive gamblers.

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Thats basically how we run it in Canada. After it reaches 50 million they start adding extra million dollar prizes on for other drawings so that the money is distributed to more people.

We also don't pay taxes on winnings.

There was literally a MM jackpot like 6 months ago. Then the powerball hit a billion. I didn't win either and I was showing up at the Wawa after every drawing to buy tickets off the machine.

I won't get fooled again

Seriously isn't. I didn't even come close to winning and I purchased like 7 tickets total for the MM and PB earlier this year.

I’m with you. I’ve only bought a ticket like twice ever, but it makes the dreams so much more vivid since there is technically a chance. It’s worth the 2 bucks. I think a second ticket adds no value, but a single ticket is cheap fun

Yea, but if you actually want good odds, the lottery isn’t the way to roll. Isn’t taxes on ticket sales something like 50%? For sure a better bet would be to go to any casino and keep parlaying it it’ll broke or millionaire. Yea, I know in theory table stakes could become an issue, but if that becomes your problem, you already had a good night.

Are………are you a towel?

Then prize money wouldn't build up so much. Not as many people would play. They are playing to win $100 million. Not $100,000.

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