Before I even got out of bed this morning, the radio stated there were no Powerball jackpot winners in my state. Oh well, it was a nice fantasy for a few days but time to move on with life. The tickets I bought for Saturday’s drawing are still (I think) in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing on Sat, & since I bought them when I was in another state there’s none of that “local ticket wins $1 million” buzz. On the rare times I do buy tickets, I’m real bad about checking them once I know I didn’t win the jackpot. Maybe that’s because today was typical; I did check them & I didn’t have a single # across my $12 [del]investment[/Del] donation to senior citizens.
Do you bother to check your tix if you know you didn’t get the big prize? Right away or, meh, whenever you get around to it?
I have a short stack of unchecked tickets. Maybe a dozen or so. I’m not a regular lotto player. I’ll buy a ticket if I happen to be picking something up at the gas station convenience store when I fill up.
I’ll probably get around to checking them this weekend. Or not.
After I once won $5,000 with a non-winning ticket that matched 4 of the (then) 5 numbers in our state lottery, I have checked mine religiously ever since.
Yes, but it could be a long time. They have the scanners at the store, I’ll see one and recall that I have ticket, sometimes. I’ve probably lost some or let them expire. The stores post a sign when they’ve sold winners in the thousands of dollars, not sure if they do that before the ticket is claimed though, so it’s possible I’ve missed a large non-jackpot amount.
I tend to buy a ticket and leave it in my coat. After the drawing, if I hear that the winner was three states over, I usually leave it in my pocket until next time I’m at the shop where I bought it and I’ll scan it.
I did check this one since the numbers and ticket happened to be right in front of me. Zero-outta-six numbers.
The chances of you winning a less-than-jackpot prize, while still remote, are much better than your odds for the jackpot.
For example, for the jackpot it’s 1 in 292,201,338.
For 5 out of 5 with no powerball 1 in 11,688,054 and that’s a million dollars.
For 4 out of 5 + powerball 1 in 913,130 for $50,000
For 4 out of 5, no powerball 1 in 36,526 for $100
For 3 out of 5 + powerball 1 in 14,495 for $100
The prizes fall off after that, but for 1 + powerball or just the powerball it’s $4, which is still worth checking your tix.
And the “2nd place” prize (5 numbers but no Powerball) is $1,000,000 (without the “Power Play” thing). 4 Numbers + Powerball gets you $50,000. OP - Would that simply not be worth it enough for you to even bother checking?
It boggles my mind that one would not check if you didn’t win the grand prize. Seriously? I mean, I didn’t check mine right away, but I got 3 of 6 (including the Powerball), so that’s $7 for my troubles. The secondary prizes of a mil and $50 Gs sound pretty good to me, too.
Granted I don’t play often, & Wawa (regional convenience store chain) has an automated machine to buy them but I didn’t even know there were scanners to read them. I’ll have to look next time I go to the store.
