Got Your Powerball Tickets?

Have You Bought Your Powerball Tickets?

  • Yes

    Votes: 44 55.0%

  • No, and I won't

    Votes: 35 43.8%

  • No, but I likely will before tonight's draw

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Total voters
    80
  • Poll closed .
I sure hope if we have a "winnah" here :dance: , s/he will let the rest of us know.

omni
 
Lets see, cash option and after taxes maybe around $270 million. Hardly worth buying a ticket for. The lottery is truly a regressive tax on those who can least afford it.
 
I had DW pick ours up today. Have not bought a lottery ticket in many years. And I really didn't care for those odds of winning at 1 in 175 million so I got 5 tickets. Now my odds are 5 in 175 million so just under two hours now until I ER!
 
I didn't buy a ticket this time, but years ago before there were multi-state lotteries, a co-worker harassed me into buying a state lotto ticket when the odds of winning the jackpot were something like 1:2,000,000 but the jackpot was $5 million. I discovered that it was a dollar well spent although I won nothing. The wonderful daydreams I had all afternoon at work were worth a lot more than $1.

BTW, because they increased the cost of a Powerball ticket this year from $1 to $2, you have to double all of the odds to see what the true odds are for a $1 bet versus the payout. Then there also the possibility of multiple winners to share the jackpot, plus the fact that you buy a ticket with after-tax $$ but win pre-tax $$.

In 1992, an Australian syndicate attempted to buy up all 7 million possible combinations for the Virginia lottery when the jackpot got up to $27 million. They ran out of time and only could buy about 5 1/2 million tickets, but they did in fact buy the winning numbers and had the only winning ticket.

Australian Lotto Group Won't Divulge Winners - Orlando Sentinel

http://www.nytimes.com/eyeblaster/addineyeV2.html
 
You betcha! DW bought them this time for a change in luck. And she picked the numbers instead of me buying quick picks.
 
I can't believe I forgot to rub my lucky four leaf clover over my tickets! :facepalm:
 
I didn't win either. But perhaps that's because I forgot to buy a ticket. Buying a lottery ticket is the type of thing I'll do perhaps once a month if I'm in the store and if I think of it at the time.
 
Someone in Missouri was recorded having this phone conversation:

"Pack your bags, honey, I just won the lottery!"

(Squeals) "What should I pack? Where are we going? The Caribbean beaches? The Alps to ski? Broadway? Paris?"

"I don't care where you go, I just want you out of there when I get home."
 
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Bestwifeever said:
Someone in Missouri was recorded having this phone conversation:

"Pack your bags, honey, I just won the lottery!"

(Squeals) "What should I pack? Where are we going? The Caribbean beaches? The Alps to ski? Broadway? Paris?"

"I don't care where you go, I just want you out of there when I get home."
Click to expand...

:LOL:
 
The after tax payout of $270 million with a 4% WD rate is approx $29K per day. That would take some W*rk ...I think I would come out of retirement for that job.
 
easysurfer said:
No, I won't. So my chance of winning is 0% versus about .0000000001% :).
Click to expand...
I figured if I waited until today, I could buy more than half of yesterday's tickets for about $00.0000000001, and still have about the same chance of winning. :)

In truth, I considered buying my first ever lottery ticket yesterday. A quick calculation of the supposed estimated cash value of the prize divided by the published odds of winning made it look acceptable. However, then I took into account the chance one or more other tickets would be sharing that estimated cash value, and the economist in me would not let me waste the money. :flowers:

Instead I saved my $2, and thus expect to have roughly an additional $0.08 available to spend every year for quite a long time relative to my life expectancy. :dance:
 
<sigh> I didn't win. But I didn't buy a ticket either. I never do, but I still think I could win. That way I get to have all the fun and hope but not spend the money.

I think maybe my spouse bought a ticket but I'm not sure.
 
One of the winners lives near me. Don't know the guy personally, but a woman in my water aerobics class does. Even less than 7 degress of separation!
 
easysurfer said:
We might have a winner! :

2 Towns Hint at Powerball Winners - Yahoo!

The winner from Arizona hasn't claimed the prize yet. If the winner is this guy in the video, hope he didn't get in a wreck from excitement afterwards :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am from Arizona, and I have not even looked at my tickets. Now, where the heck did I put them?

Wait! I did not buy any. Oh well... I was in a shop in Kona when overhearing a customer asking the clerk for a Powerball ticket. It was not available in Hawaii, and I did not even know about the prize amount. I cannot say if I would have bought some, but I did not the last time the grand prize got this high (I also learned about it on this forum too).

That's too bad that I am not a winner. Else, I would share some with people here. Yes, really! It would be something proportional to the number of posts that a member has made. How about something like $1/post? Am I too cheap? How about $10/post? Could I afford $100/post?

Hmm... I would have to be sure to ask Andy to capture and freeze the post numbers before I make the announcement. Imagine how the traffic would crash Andy's server when people scramble to put in silly posts (like one I am making now).

PS. Oh, I just looked at the video in the link. I do not look like the guy in the video, so even if I bought any ticket I would not bother to look for them.
 
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I sure hope the Arizona winner is auditioning lawyers and financial advisors, but I suspect the reality is that they're going through their dirty laundry trying to remember which pocket they left the ticket in.

pb4uski said:
It is fun to dream though.
If I won I would host a huge three-day all expense paid early-retirement.org party in Hawaii! How's that for dreaming!
How much room do you have there Nords?
Click to expand...
Plenty of room, but I'm going to have to get more yardwork tools for everyone!

NW-Bound said:
Oh well... I was in a shop in Kona when overhearing a customer asking the clerk for a Powerball ticket. It was not available in Hawaii, and I did not even know about the prize amount.
Click to expand...
Hawaii and Utah have outlawed lotteries/gambling. Hypothetically it's illegal even to have a Mainland friend buy a ticket for you and mail it to you.

But it's considered legal to pay income tax on the winnings...

Around here it's a topic of perennial debate, and perhaps one of the reasons why so many Hawaii residents spend so much time/money in Las Vegas.
 
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