Let 'em knock. The OP is explicit that the power given you is no the ability to influence the numbers when they are drawn, but rather to get the results a day early. You haven’t done anything wrong.
I’d wait until it got really big. I mean, it’s not like you’ll have to wait years until it gets up into the hundreds of millions. So far this year, the powerball has been won four times: $25m, $141m, $212m and $252m (all are for the annuity, pre-tax). Each time there was only one winning ticket.
As for buying two tickets, I agree, it’s a good idea. But why stop there? why not buy a hundred? That way, if there’s another winner, you still get 99% of the prize. Of course, it’d suck for the other person:
As a matter of fact, iirc a couple of years ago that pretty much happened. It turned out someone had bought two tickets and won. There was one other winner and he took the lottery to court because he felt he should get half the money (for being one of the two winners) rather than one third (for having one of the three winning tickets). As I recall, the court said tough luck. 
I’d take the $20 million; Sweden’s another tax-free lottery winnings paradise. I look at it this way: I’ve lived about 15,000 days of my life and can probably count on 15,000 more. Out of the $20 million I set aside $5 million to pay off bills and mortgages and whatnot for me and my family with plenty left over for a few massively expensive impulse purchases; that gives me $15 million for discretionary income at a budget of $1,000 a day. (If I can’t live within my means at that limit, there’s something seriously wrong with my spending habits.) Unspent money at the end of the day goes into a slush fund for whatever purpose I feel like.
I’d take the $20 million, simply because that’s well past the point where the marginal utility of any extra millions isn’t worth the risk of not getting anything. But if I were feeling a little bit more risk-tolerant, I’d read up on secretary problems and pick the optimal strategy.
I chose 160 million, but then I looked up my State lottery, and it’s around 190 million or so.
So uh, I guess I’ll go cash this in tomorrow? I was planning to save it for a rainy day this power, and just use it whenever it gets around 175million or so, but :Shrug: I’m not really a big picture sorta guy when it comes to the lottery thing- why is the expected assumption that because the money value is higher that you’re more likely to split the cash vs. a lower amount?
Just because if the money is higher that people will be more likely to go out and purchase tickets? If that’s the case, meh. I’ll still take whatever part of 190-200million I get, it’s the lottery after all.
I have worked the math on $5MM. Post tax and such, invested relatively conservatively, $5MM (my personal target) comes to just over $11,000 per month FOREVER…or as long as the banking system holds up.
That is certainly enough to get a family through but it’s not a palatial existence at all. The main advantage it presents you is that it’s a lock. Never work again unless you want to. Take the kids to Disney every month if you want. Doesn’t matter, you can do it.
But Lear Jets? Castles in Gstaad? Not going to happen.
That’s why I chose the $200MM+ option. Post taxes that comes to about $80MM. And that, my friends, becomes, on the terms above, over $160,000 per month for forever. Or you can go wild, spend $10MM on a home with life-form robotic cyber massage servants, and still be in good shape.
With lasers for eyes, yet!
According to Wikipedia, the average jackpot won is now $141 million. Assuming this is fairly close to the median, I’d wait until the jackpot reached this amount or close to it, then go for it.
I chose $120 million for the poll.