# Powerball Frenzy and you.....or not..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 28, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388 "2012-11-28T17:40:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/41 "2012-11-28T20:17:04Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > If you buy 175,223,510 unique draws, you’re guaranteed to realize a profit. Correction - there is no guarantee, due to multiple winners possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/42 "2012-11-28T20:29:00Z")
> [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > If you are the kind of person whose life will seriously change from winning a jackpot, isn’t 50 million going to do about as much for you as 500? When you tell your boss to bite your shiny metal ass, all that matters is that you are rich, right? A businessman who is already worth 10 million would probably treat the two jackpots differently, but he’s not likely to play the lottery anyway. Not really. If I won $50 million, less 33% in taxes and divided out over 20 years, that’s $1.7 million per year. Certainly a ton of money more than I have now but probably not more than I could spend if I wanted a gold plated yacht or whatever. $500 million is $17 million per year. Not enough for a gold yacht if you’re hung up on hyperbole but you could certainly live out more fantasies with it. Realistically, I’m not likely to win either but it’s more entertaining to imagine a ridiculously large pot of money over just a large pot 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/43 "2012-11-28T20:30:46Z")
I bought one ticket. If it loses, ehh. If it wins, I have a huge ROI on my investment. I hate people in general anyway, so if I win it won’t be a big loss writing of everyone I know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/44 "2012-11-28T20:34:25Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Correction - there is no guarantee, due to multiple winners possibility. Yes, I acknowledged that later down the thread. Like I said, I was speaking theoretically. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/45 "2012-11-28T21:29:42Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’ll buy a ticket. A few dollars is fine admission for a few hours of what-if. > > And I hate to break it to you, **a** (can I call you **a**?) but by buying 15 tickets instead of 1, you upped your chances of winning by approximately 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000001% (rounded). The chances of a winning ticket are 1 in 173223510. With fifteen tickets I suppose it would be 1 in 11681567.333. Hardly worth mortgaging your house, as I’ve heard of, but fifteen tickets isn’t more than they can afford. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/46 "2012-11-28T21:32:48Z")
> [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > Wait a minute. That’s how it works? Plenty of institutions have that kind of money to invest. Why doesn’t Warren Buffet, or some state employees pension plan, just go and buy enough tickets to get a dead certain win every single time there is a lottery? If you had 24-hour/day access to 1000 lottery machines capable of processing one application a second, you could do it. And that’s if you’d written out all 175 million unique applications in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/47 "2012-11-28T21:34:47Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > With that last jackpot that was $640 million we got to the point where we would be cloning dinosaurs and training them to fly fighter jets in homage to Calvin and Hobbes.😛 Definitely money well spent then! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/48 "2012-11-28T21:37:37Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > The chances of a winning ticket are 1 in 173223510. With fifteen tickets I suppose it would be 1 in 11681567.333. > > Hardly worth mortgaging your house, as I’ve heard of, but fifteen tickets isn’t more than they can afford. Yeah, I know, it’s just a constant argument I have with my mother. She goes out and buys like 20 bucks worth of tickets, seemingly earnestly thinking she has just increased her chances of winning to any degree worth mentioning. And she’s not a stupid woman. She knows the score, but refuses to agree with me as everybody obviously should. I keep telling her, “why don’t you go buy one ticket and then give me the other $18 - same-same, and I get a case of beer out of the deal.” So far, no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/49 "2012-11-28T21:44:10Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > There are a lot of lottery winners that can’t handle the sudden wealth and end up pissing it all away, and often create a lot of turmoil among their family and friends. But I recall that most winners end up better off financially long term. Money doesn’t make you smart. A dumb guy who wins is going to do dumb things. I saw no frenzy. I was at my local pharmacy on monday. Walked up to the counter and bought 5 tickets. Today someone went around the office and I put in 5 like everyone else. I am a bit of a gambler anyway so I don’t consider it wasted. Just a longshot. Hell I threw $20 on the Bucs to win the Superbowl pre-season because it was 100-1 odds. Now thats throwing money away. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/50 "2012-11-28T21:50:28Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/51 "2012-11-28T21:52:07Z")
Bought a ticket. Don’t expect to win, but it’s fun to fantasize. The fantasy is no fun if it’s truely impossible, like by not buying a ticket. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/52 "2012-11-28T22:21:40Z")
It costs $12 for a movie here. I can have as much entertainment out of a $2 lottery ticket and still have $10 in my pocket. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/53 "2012-11-29T03:33:29Z")
The group I manage bought a bunch of tickets and then asked if I wanted to buy in. I certainly did…I just think of it as insurance. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/54 "2012-11-29T03:57:34Z")
When that $640m jackpot happened last time, I noodled around on Redfin and found a penthouse condo I would buy in a heartbeat. I noodled around yesterday and it’s still for sale. I took it as a sign and bought a ticket. What the heck. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/55 "2012-11-29T04:03:44Z")
And the numbers are: 5 16 22 23 29 and the red ball is 6. Nothin’ here! Oh well. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/56 "2012-11-29T04:12:03Z")
Huh, interesting that all the numbers are below 31. That means that it’s more likely, IIRC, that there are multiple winners, since that includes the possibility of several someones playing birthdays. And I win… Bupkis. Of course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/57 "2012-11-29T04:21:24Z")
I think I won four bucks! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/58 "2012-11-29T04:46:21Z")
I only buy lotto tickets if: A. I get gasoline and B. I have to go into the store for something else (soda, beer, etc.) (pay at the pump) and C. And the “Pot odds” are high enough. Option C is the only criteria that is met. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/59 "2012-11-29T05:01:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I think I won four bucks! hey, me too! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388/60 "2012-11-29T05:02:17Z")
Well crap, looks like I’ll have to finish that audit questionnaire tomorrow after all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerball-frenzy-and-you-or-not/642388.md?page=4)