Yeah, we bought 3 tickets. I don’t think we’re going to win but it’s worth the $3 for the ability to have a few fantasies about the things we would do with that much money.
I bought 10 tickets.
Tune in next week to see if I won!
My lotto store is indeed right across the street from me and there was no line last night when I bought mine. If there had been a line I probably wouldn’t have bothered
Around here when people get into a pool they give every one a copy of the tickets so there’s no funny stuff. No one asked me this time around so I just got my own.
I gave to the lottery pool at work. I had bought some of my own but then contributed them to the lottery pool as well. Might as well try!
That’s what the person running the office pool where I work did. We all received an email with the scanned tickets last night along with the numbers from any tickets that anyone had already bought and contributed. She sent out a spreadsheet of everyone and included information on how it would be split as well.
Buying lottery tickets is built into my personal entertainment budget, next to buying movie tickets. I rarely win (hit a couple of $100 payouts), but I figure a buck or two a week does give me a greater than zero chance of winning. It’s worth it for the entertainment value. Cheap at the price. Cheaper than movie tickets, that’s for sure.
I’m in for $5. Worst that can happen is that I’ve overpaid for a bookmark. It’s not as if I’ve never done that before.
Sure, for the first time I got some tickets. It’ll be fun with money I can afford to lose.
My husband bought into the pool at work. It’s the first time he’s played the lotto since I’ve known him. You can’t win if you don’t play!
No. I don’t see that sort of money as solving any problems that I have, and it could sure as hell make some worse.
I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a book mark.
My wife buys the lottery tickets around here (she really, really hates her job). She wasn’t aware of the Mega thing (she plays Powerball), but when I told about the payout she took the kid’s car to the gas station to fill it up and get a ticket.
I’m pretty sure she’ll share.
For once, the EV of a lotto ticket is greater than 1. So yeah, I’m playing. I’ve given $2 to the office pool that has 10 numbers. Somehow the guy running the pool rooked people into just giving money and picking numbers without any regard for who gave how much, so I paid 1/9th of the pool for 1/7th of the ‘shares’. I think people didn’t realize how easy it would be to determine who got how much, so they just disregarded the math altogether.
How did you figure that? Remember, the probability of you winning the entire jackpot = the probability that you have the winning numbers multiplied by the probability that nobody else does. Based on the current projection, the most likely number of winning tickets is five. (I posted a proof on another board that says that the most likely number of winners pretty much equals (the number of tickets - 1) x (the probability that any particular ticket wins), rounded down.)
I bought one ticket, but not (necessarily) to win the jackpot; I intend to keep it as a souvenir of the drawing if it doesn’t win more than, say, $2.
As was mentioned the only real way to do an office pool is to give copies of the tickets to everyone participating so no one can claim that the winner was from one of thier private ticket. It would be very hard to fight that.
We can’t wait that long!
I play a few dollars each week. So - yes.
I’m just guessing. But I think your formula is off. You’ve got to move the 1 outside the equation, like:
(the number of tickets) x (the probability that any particular ticket wins)-1, rounded down. If you’re one of the winners, then there’s one less winner to share it with. Your win cancels the “alternate universe” wins of 175 million other ticket-holders.
There are also lower prizes, like the $250,000 one for missing just the megaball, for which there are 3.8 million combinations. So that’s another 8 cents to add to the EV just for that prize alone, not an insignificant bonus, I don’t think.
I’m in with a pool at my office. Fourteen of us kicked in $5 each. I never go to Vegas or to casinos or play football pools, so I figure $5 once every year or two is no big deal.
My husband also bought $5 worth on his own, so of course we’re hoping that that’s the ticket that hits.
I have my private wealth manager and law firm all picked out.
Is there any way to buy tickets online? Not sure I’ll get out today; if so, count me in for a ten-spot. Daydreaming is fun!
Cash payout is now 462 million.