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Subscribe to RSSEach ticket has a one in nearly 176 million chance of winning, but that didn't stop people from dreaming about what they'd do if they won the jackpot. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
The Mega Millions lottery hit $640 million Friday, according to lottery officials, raising what was already a record-shattering prize.
That's a cash payout of $462 million, according to the Mega Millions web site.
The even larger prize is expected to add to the lottery frenzy across the country. Hopeful future-millionaires have formed long lines at stores across the 42 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands, where tickets are sold.
What to buy when you win the jackpot
The drawing for the fortune is set for late Friday in Atlanta.
Ticket sales in California are expected to hit $333 million, with $189 million in New York and $94 million in Texas. In all, the lottery is expected to generate sales of $1.4 billion for this drawing.
Nobody matched all six numbers in Tuesday's regular draw, and the total jackpot has been growing since.
Players pay $1 for a ticket and must pick five numbers from 1 to 56 plus a Mega number from 1 to 46 to win the jackpot.
But at $1 a ticket, what are the odds of picking a Mega Millions winning ticket -- even at a "lucky" store?
According to Dr. Ken Alexander, a mathematics professor at USC, the odds of winning are one in 175.7 million. That raises the question: Why not guarantee you win by buying all possible ticket combinations?
“Well, a number of things get in the way of that,” Alexander said.
Personal finance expert Suze Orman weighs in on the Mega Millions craze.
Assuming 350 million tickets are sold, there’s a better than 90 percent chance that there will be at least two winners. So after taxes, you’ll likely come out with a loss.
And, assuming it takes about five seconds to fill out each card, you'd need five years to mark the bubbles on the game tickets. There goes that plan.
View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.
A student and her friend dropped a more reasonable $20 at a 7-11 near USC Thursday for 20 tickets. That made Michelle Chong's odds of winning 1 in 9 million -- daunting odds, but at least she bought herself some excitement Friday.
"It's just the excitement that you might win," said Chong. "The number is so big."
Why even skeptics are rushing to buy a Mega Millions ticket
Had Chong purchased 50 tickets, her chances of winning the jackpot would be comparable with her odds of being struck by lightning.
Based on U.S. averages, you're about 8,000 times more likely to be murdered than win the lottery and 20,000 times more likely to die in a vehicle crash.
But what about the strategy of choosing outlets that have previously sold winners?
"If you buy them from some store that sells a lot of tickets, then the store is more likely to have a winner,” Alexander said. “But your 10 (tickets) have the same probability as if you buy them from anywhere else.”
In the hopes of striking it rich, people across the country are scooping up Mega Millions tickets. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $390 million in March 2007, when the prize was split between two tickets sold in Georgia and New Jersey. The largest Powerball jackpot was $365 million won in 2006 on one ticket held by eight workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant.
Patrick Healy and John Simerson of NBCLosAngeles.com contributed to this report.
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If I win I'm going to space a.s.a.p. and Im gonna smoke some super dank with charles branson! Then I'm gonna make my own custom clothes and get a rollercoaster!
Does anyone want yo go in half for someone in Alaska? I have the winning numbers!!!
When I win, I'll buy an invincible robot body to put my brain in, when my body wears out. I'll have a whole new life as Benbot version 2.352453 <BLEEP BLORP>
If i win ..I would donate 2 million to Obama campaign..and the democrat party
Oh! Gosh! I forgot that Tim Tebow might buy a ticket...........
hey if i win i will have to go against everything i believed in ..and turn Republican and say bad things to the poor
That's kind of funny cause I was like if I win I'm voting Romney because I know he will take care of my cause Ill be rich!
hahahaha..thats my point
Ohio Lottery sells tickets on line
Give it all away and become the poorest winner of the largest lottery to date.
Now that would make history 2 times over, and a lot of real needful people happy.
later.
This is just MY opinion on the whole thing. I DON'T think anyone acturally wins the money. I think the lottery people say someone won it and distribute the money between themselves and government officials. I think it lines pockets and that is all......
so you live in the basement..you can come out now
Thank you, we will see!!!
I agree Gin, gubment just selects a Shill to win and keeps the money less the shill's tiny cut.
so Romney will win hum
This is the funnest thread I have read all week. So much fun to see what everyone would do and some of the math has truly made me giggle.
What I love is that just about everyone would give most of it away.
When I win I plan on having envelopes of cash on me at all times so that when I'm in the grocery store and see a single mom with kids in tow trying to make her grocery money go as far as possible I can just walk up to her and hand her a bunch of cash. It might not solve all her problems but it will let her know someone cares and someone was paying attention.
I'd make sure my family was taken care of, would pay of my car and buy some new clothes. Oh, and I'd get a new grill. I'd remodel my kitchen, fix my leaking basement and replace the birdbath that some jerk just stole out of my backyard today.
I wouldn't quit working though. I might take a vacation but I'd keep working. Knowing I didn't have to work would make it so much more fun. Of course, I work for myself. If I worked for someone else I would totally quit.
you see people that's an ordinary kind of folk.she has a heart of gold. you republicans should learn from her
Um.. @elvispayne I am a Republican. Most of us are kind hearted, we just don't appreciate the government, or anyone else, telling us how to spend our money.
I don't want to turn this into an ugly political thread because it really is too much fun. Let's just wish everyone luck tonight.
if i win I will buy an old rust bucket of a car and drive it to the most expensive Restaurant and pull up to vela parking and ask to park it next to the Lamborghini in the parking lot. next I will build my house next door to my stuck up ex-Boss big house and build a bigger house just to block out the sun light to her house just to piss her off. Next, every morning i will walk out to the front of my bigger house still wearing my knew birthday suit pajamas with a cup of coffee to get my newspaper and to wish her a good morning just to piss her off ( my god i won the mega million!!! wait!!! Dam we did not even have the drawing yet) well it was fun playing it and dream for a while.
My workwife won't buy a ticket with the $10 bucks she owes me. She's the definition of cheap.
pawn her cat
I'd create jobs, One to drive the Limo and a few Body Guards, oh yeah, a Maid, can't forget the French Maid, ;=)))
It's fun to dream...Just think after after the lottery is won by one or two people, they'll be 300 Million disappointed people. The odds are staggering but someone will beat it and won't be me. I played one ticket...just one! I figure what's the difference between 100 million and 640 million? Too much for me comprehend! I'll take $100,000 right now....Good luck!!
I would have such a blast. I would make sure all my friends and families homes were paid off and they each had a car. Then I would find people that are in risk of losing their homes and pay off their mortgages or make them a no interest loan. I would find homeless people and help them get situated in life. A job, a car, a place to live. I would make sure those here in America that are hungry are fed. I would invest some and take one hell of a vacation, I would buy a modest house and a small business..
I have had sooo many issues myself, lost my home, not being able to find a job is tearing me up. I lived a life once where money wasn't too much of an issue. I have always tried to help others and now being where I am I can feel their pain. I won't win of course because it is never people like me that win, its always those who blow it all on houses, cars money etc that seem to have the luck.
I would change my name..because everyone knows elvis
I think his math is off, if you go under the assumption that there will be two winning tickets out of the 300million plus tickets purchased, then even if you spend $175.5MM in tickets for every combination, if you were one of the two winners, your take would be $320MM and after taxes approximately $240MM so you'd still be $70MM in the green... or did I miss something with my math?
I like Flower
would that be your name..Im a man
MSNBC... if you talked to a mathematics professor, you should know that your odds NEVER change no matter how many tickets you buy.
Zach, they do change. In this case, 20 (assume unique) tickets were bought, lowering the odds from 1 in 175.7 million to 175.69998 million. If you bought 175.7 million unique tickets you would guarantee a win.
America Lost the 2008 Lottery and we got stuck with Barrack Obama. Lets not lose the 2012 Lottery in November
"A student and her friend dropped a more reasonable $20 at a 7-11 near USC Thursday for 20 tickets. That made Michelle Chong's odds of winning 1 in 9 million"
No, you idiots... it reduced her odds of 1 in 175.7 million to 1 in 175.69998 million.
Exactly!
I want to cough, burp and lay a big giant loud wet fart in a fancy restaurant
Irresponsible reporting: If the odds of a single ticket winning are 1 in 175.7 million, buying 20 tickets does not cut the odds to 1 in 9 million... it simply makes the odds 20 in 175.7 million... there is a huge difference!
Why is this such a big deal? Because it points to a fundamental flaw in our present monetary system.
The flaw is so well known that a saying about it has existed for generations, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”.
First a very simple example of the flaw at work:
Imagine if everyone started out the game of Monopoly with NO money. The debt occurred at just moving around the board would make it almost impossible to do anything else. Now to make it more representative of our present planetary situation, imagine if 2 players started out with all the property and 80 percent of the money already divided up amongst themselves, and the remaining eight players started with no money.
Hmm….
Look at the lives of most people on this planet, and tell me the difference.
Now, let me first explain this without any villains. If you were able to travel back to the perioid in time when America's currency was created, you could choose to have nothing to do with it, and instead go out west and at the very least carry buckets of clean water back to your camp, hunt and fish in clean lakes or rivers for food, and if you had the skill - catch, skin, and eat animals; then use or barter or sell whatever skins and leftovers you had.
Today, there is not one square inch of land in the United States where you can remove anything - soil, mineral, plant, or animal without first paying someone – money.
You cannot be born, die, or obtain food or shelter without giving someone – money.
Since it is illegal to make your own money, you must obtain money from authorized sources, in authorized ways. Which means someone must either give you money for nothing, (normally this only happens with family, or the handicapped, or severely disadvantaged), or you must perform a task, for which someone agrees to pay a certain amount of money.
A person MUST sell themselves in our modern world, because all other previous avenues of survival are owned and sold, with even hunting, fishing, or camping on “public” land requiring a license that costs money. You must even have money to buy identification to legally prove who you are.
Of course this flaw doesn’t stop the system from continuing, but… is it fair, or necessary?
I have refrained from mentioning the villains, but I would say you will know them by observing who wants to change things, and who wants things to remain the same. Those who are happy being able to buy and sell people, deciding the price, duration, and terms of the contact will lie, and cheat, and fight to continue to the bondage. Those who are tired of the lack of choice and freedom, because of money, hopefully will act to change the rules. It's time to forget about race, or religion, or sex, and decide that everyone must be treated fairly and honestly with the same opportunities, rights, and rules.
Some would argue that the next obvious step is to present a solution to this identified flaw; but I would answer that I have not done so for a very good reason. Presenting a solution at this step allows the villains to attack and belittle it, distracting attention away from the problem. When we can all agree that it does truly exist, and needs to be remedied, then it will be time to advance.
One final note: It is important to understand that the laws and rules governing the use of money and property have always been determined and written by those who already possess the most of it. There are NO law makers who live on minimum wage, or have no health care. Does the average worker really have the ability to negotiate their employment or give themselves raises, or holidays?
Who cares what the odds are? If you don't buy one your odds are 0%. I never play the lottery but even I picked up a few for this one so my odds increased tremendously.