Actually, much of the lottery money goes toward public transit, which is somewhat ironic, in that frequently I used to see people riding the bus with a fistful of lottery tickets on payday.

Heh. The funny thing about the money going toward education/transportation is that people think that the lottery in their state actually funds this or that. In actuality, it is only subsidizing the governments responsibility to fund education/transportation. The government would have to pay for education/transportation anyways, they just push the money from the Lottery there because that is how they sold their taxpayers on a Lottery in the first place. The money is just another piece in their budget puzzle. A multi-billion dollar piece of the budget that is pretty much a tax on the willing.

Lottery revenues pay for different things in each state where the lottery is legal. Most states use it for education, as is the case here in Idaho. I don't have any data to support this, but I would imagine that in most cases, if not all, the public programs that receive lottery revenues have seen a corresponding decline in general appropriation support from their legislature for those same programs. That has certainly been the case in Idaho and California.

The lottery is a tax for the mathematically impaired.

Skup...right...and you go tell the person that won over $200 million take home how stupid they are for playing Powerball. Please report back to us if they look at you like, "You can't actually be that friggin' dumb, can you?"

The lottery is a tax for the mathematically impaired

I'm mad I didn't win the jackpot either Skup.

Playing the lottery regularly is for the mathematically impaired.

But in this case it's not insane to buy a ticket. The probability of hitting the jackpot (all five numbers plus the bonus ball) is 1 in 195 million, give or take. So if buying a ticket is $1, it makes sense to buy one whenever the pot goes over $195 million. By that I mean the expected pay out is large enough that spending a dollar on bad odds is more reasonable.

Of course, probability also suggests doing random picks. People tend to pick similar numbers--birthdays, etc--so you're less likely to have to share the jackpot, if you ever win one.

@GOOFYTIGRE, The powerball is rigged, how do you explain it never reaching 400 million. C'mon someone always magically wins it! You just said yourself it is very very very hard to win it, 1-175 million right? Think about it!

@trip - not sure i follow your thought there at all. how does it make sense to buy a ticket, now at $2, whenever it goes over 195 million? how is that any different than a 1 million payout if you win?

your odds do not improve at all either way. just more people playing so the odds someone might win go up.

It's called expected utility. It's a concept game theorists, economists and others use to understand the risks and rewards involved in specific decisions.

The expected utility of making a specific move in a game of chance is equal to the probability of that move winning multiplied by the expected reward. In this case, the probability of winning the lottery is 1 in 195 million and the expected reward is $330 million. So the expected utility is 1.69 (330/195).

Since the lottery ticket costs $1, your expected utility of buying that ticket is higher than the cost of playing. So it's a reasonable move. In other words, given the size of the possible reward, spending $1 on a game with extremely slim odds isn't completely wacko.

your odds do not improve at all either way. just more people playing so the odds someone might win go up.

Right your odds of winning the game never change. Just the value of playing goes up. And in this case it goes over the cost of playing.

They tried that trust idea in Iowa..and the winner got nothing..the state of Iowa kept all the money.

The trust deal in Iowa was by a shady lawyer who was either representing someone that could not legally claim the prize or that acquired the ticket illegally. There is no way he was ever going to get the money for that jackpot and he knew it. He asked them to give it to charity when he realized that his ploy wasn't going to work.

A trust is the way to go if you are going to claim a large prize for the lottery. Unfortunately, the lottery wants to use your smiling, happy face for publicity and require it in most instances.

Yeah..think you're correct there goofy..those three financial managers in Connecticut did a trust setup and they collected..seems a little shady what they did though and still got the money..I still don't think anyone of them was the real winner.

if the winner is smart he/she will set up a trust and collect without telling the world.

Except the winner has to step forward to claim it as part of the rules.

Absolutely.

Amen Liz! Sadly, winning the lottery brings out every slime ball in a family looking for a handout and people from across the country who are in need, or just feel needy asking for money. It also brings out those who would trespass on their property claiming some kind of personal injury while there and suing for several million dollars. The lottery is best won in secrecy, collected in secrecy, and used in secrecy. I have always said that if I won, I would just buy a really nice modular home and then keep my mouth shut.

Oh YEAH, Take the Money and GO GO GO. I agree JM

I bet a lot of media would turn out on the last day if the prize hasn't been claimed yet, expecting to see exactly what you describe. If it was me, I'd claim it at 1pm on a random Tuesday near the middle of the claim period.

It wouldn't matter when I went to claim it, my newly hired armed security guards would keep the undesirables away.

Darn Dana,

I was gonna post that very same thing...LOL I believe I read an article yesterday (Sunday) that the prize had not been collected yet....Ha Ha..

That's two of you that beat me to my thinking it has only been 2 days...

I don't get it, what's so odd about writing that? If they haven't claimed it yet, they have yet to claim it.

Change .. The way I heard that was "a lottery is the taxation of fools, but its the only one they pay willingly".

LOL@ the Lottery!! 1:175,000,000 odds are astronomical! Math says save your money up and 4x per year and go play the pass line on the Craps table.... odds are 1:7 MUCH SANER!!

See comment 1.4 and 1.5 above....

No really it was my Uncle Smedley on my grandmother's side. He doesn't know me because I wasn't born yet even tho he is only 35, and I am only 50

LOL

A preist, a rabbi and a lottery winner walk into a bar.....

As long as you believe that it will be true for you. Richness in life has nothing to do with money or any other material possession. You are poor because your thinking is impoverished, not because your bank balance is small.

it's a good idea to get a good lawyer and accountant and Security.

What ever.

My thoughts exactly Smlfry 2

You actually sound envious -- like you wish YOU could get away with such behavior. What an impoverished mindset. Those people are desparate to improve their lot in life. If you were born and raised in America, you have had advantages such people can only imagine/scrath/claw to obtain by any means possible.

Admit your privilege and get your eyes off those impoverished people.

Except, they're not coming here to work any longer.

They're coming here to have their babies and get on the welfare-4-life gravy train.

You sound like one of those fat ugly lazy women who love the immigrants, because they're the only one desperate enough to date you. They'll marry you so they can get their green card and be able to stay here and you're more than willing to do that.

You wonder why there's an obesity problem in the U.S. It's not just because the kids are lazy and in front of the computer all day...

.. it's also because fat lazy ugly women are having babies now because now they have found guys willing to sleep with them.

I AGREE with JCMeg and I'm not a fat, lazy, and ugly woman. I am an American and I'm pretty damn hot as a matter of fact.

JCMeg, to pretend that some people don't use the safety net as a hammock, and view getting checks from Uncle Sugar for having five kids by six different fathers as a legitimate lifestyle is frankly naive. I'm reminded of one woman's experience with welfare abuse in Maine.

The worst thing I ever saw at Wal-Mart Scarborough was two women and their children. These women each had multiple carts full of items, and each began loading them at the same time (this should have been a tip-off to their intelligence levels). The first woman, henceforth known as Welfare Queen #1, paid for about $400 worth of food with food stamps. The majority of her food was void of any nutritional value. She then pulled out an entire month’s worth of WIC (Women, Infants, and Children program) checks. I do not mind people paying with WIC, but the woman had virtually none of the correct items. WIC gives each participating mother a book containing actual images of items for which a person can and cannot redeem the voucher. This woman literally failed at image comprehension.

After redeeming 10+ WIC checks, Welfare Queen #1 had me adjust the prices of several items she was buying (Wal-Mart’s policy is to adjust the price of the item without question if it’s within a dollar or two). She then pulled out a vacuum cleaner, and informed me that the cost of the vacuum was $3.48 because, “that’s what the label says.” The vacuum cleaner was next to a stack of crates that were $3.48. Somehow, every other customer was able to discern that the vacuum cleaner was not $3.48, but Welfare Queen #1 and her friend Welfare Queen #2 were fooled. Welfare Queen #2 informed me that she used to work for Wal-Mart, and that the “laws of Wal-Mart legally said” that I would have to sell her the vacuum for $3.48. After contacting my manager, who went off to find the proper vacuum price, Welfare Queen #1 remarked that it must be tough to stand on a mat all day and be a cashier. I looked at her, smiled, shrugged, and said, “Well, it’s a job.”

She was speechless. After they finally admitted defeat, (not before Welfare Queen #2 realizing she didn’t have enough money to buy all of the food she had picked out, resulting in the waste of about $200 worth of products) the two women left about an hour and a half after they arrived at my register. The next man in line said that the two women reminded him of buying steel drums and cement. I said I was reminded why I vote Republican.

Local Guy, were you born this ignorant and disgusting or did you get a degree in obnoxious from a university?

why are people called racist and ignorant and disgusting when they speak the truth?

JCMeg56 & JStone-2232816 are part of the problem, are you that naive or do you also live off the system? Good chance your illegal aliens.

"Admit your privilege and get your eyes off those impoverished people."

Sounds like your worried your going to lose those freebees.

dorian: because name-calling is much, much easier than dealing with a reality that does not lend itself well to simplistic Leftist moralizing.

If someone needs help, I'm more than happy to lend a hand, but when able-bodied people decide they'd much rather collect a government check than work, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

heck I'd wear one for 1 million