With the post-tax payout (in NJ) at 251 million. That’s one serious governemental cash grab.
Now you know how the 1% feels. 
There was more than a dollar’s worth of change by the washing machine this morning, so I decided to get one. It wasn’t money I was using anyway. I have no expectation of winning, but the thought is nice.
I bought thirteen bucks worth of tickets. To my knowledge, I think this is only the second time I bought lottery tickets. Possibly the third. I feel slightly dirty for doing so but, what the hell. For the shit I spend a few bucks on, might as well give it a try.
My formula for determining the most likely number of winners includes “you” in the pool of potential winners, but you are not necessarily one of them.
The probability of nobody else winning = (1 - the probability of winning) raised to the power of (the number of tickets everybody besides you bought). The probability of winning is 1/175,711,536; if you accept a conservative estimate of 800 million tickets sold (which would make the most likely number of winners 4 instead of 5), there is about a 1/95 chance of nobody besides you winning. This means you have about a 1 in 16.7 billion chance of winning the entire jackpot with any particular ticket.
Today at work we helped a group of people photocopy $600 in tickets. Silly.
I always look at playing the lottery as a donation to the government, like paying extra taxes. It does go to benefit good things, so, there you go. Do I want to win? Of course. But first and foremost, playing the lottery is like donating to a good cause.
They don’t have the lottery in my state so I had to get my fiancé to buy some tickets for us. If she/we win I’ll have to buy a plane ticket and marry that girl pronto.
Yeah, I did. I know exactly what’ll happen: some retiree in upper New York or a group of mechanics in Wisconsin will win and I’ll get bupkis, but it’s nice to dream.
On the same day that I got some (additional) tickets, I had a successful job interview (temp to hire possible, no less), which has 175 million times better odds of changing my life than the damn lottery, but I’ll accept both. 
Nah. I prefer the challenge of the scratch-off tickets.
I haven’t bought a single lotto ticket since moving to the States, now that I think about it. Would I even be allowed to keep my big winnings if I’m not a US citizen?
I bought 5 quick picks this evening. The way my luck goes, I probably won’t even hit 3 numbers…
We really should have done an SDMB lotto pool. If nobody wins the jackpot tonight (though they probably will) who’s up for one?
I started a fake pool here. Give me 10 numbers, and let’s rock ‘n’ roll!
I bought into the pool at work. They have 800 tickets.
I never play the lottery, but I figured I’d feel like an idiot if half the office were multimillionaires tomorrow and I wasn’t in on it.
We rarely buy lotto tickets, but today hubby came home with $10 worth, plus $15 in scratch tickets. The scratchies were a bust, so, we’re sure the mega-millions will give us a win.
Drinks for everyone, if we do!
I typically buy 2 Powerball draws a week, but I picked up 5 draws for Megamillions too on hearing about the jackpot. I sincerely doubt I’ll win, and if I did I’d have to share it with some syndicate that bought 100,000 tickets or something, but what the hell. Honestly I’d just be satisfied with $10,000, never mind several hundred million.
You can in Illinois, I think.
It’s up to 640 million now I heard. I bought 3 tickets. I only did it because my sister asked me to, but I’d just as soon she win anyway. I know she’ll share.
Good luck everyone. If I win, I’ll share with my favorite dopers. 
https://www.myillinoislottery.com/en-us/games/megamillions.html
I’m currently out on a boat in the gulf of Mexico. What would happen if I bought an online ticket that won?
You poor chumps.
Not a single one of you thought to call “dibs,” did you?
Thought not. 
I’ll be in touch with the admins, and we’ll discuss how to accommodate my new-found notoriety without sacrificing the simple homey just-plain-folksiness of the kaylasdad99 that you have all come to know and love over the past 12.5 years.
I tossed $5 into the office pool. I know the odds are zero, but I was ‘one of the team’ and all that. I don’t even know what I’d do with the millions that would amount to my share. I only need to hit ~$250k to have enough money for just about forever.
I really don’t know what I’d do. I’ll give away half. Who wants to be friends?