Powerball jackpot.....500 million and growing!
 

Will you partake?



http://abcnews.go.com/Business/power...ry?id=17812739


The jackpot for Wednesday's Powerball drawing now stands at $500 million -- the richest Powerball pot ever -- and it's likely to get even sweeter.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," says Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the Iowa lottery. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

It's proved true. The total, she says, "has been taking huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." (The most recent drawing, on Saturday night, produced no winning numbers.)

Until now, the biggest Powerball pot on record -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Lottery officials in Iowa, where Powerball is headquartered, have started getting phone calls from all around the world. "When it gets this big," says Neubauer, "we start getting inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she says, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.

Asked if there's anything players can do to improve their odds of winning, Neubauer says no -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning Wednesday's Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you are 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provides additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he says; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi notes that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose, however, that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born," Garibaldi says. The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning Wednesday.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi says he'll usually play the lottery. "When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets. It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So will he be purchasing two tickets for Wednesday's Powerball? "I can't," he tells ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

Aren't your odds of being the sole winner better without so baby people playing?

no, i don't waste money on the lottery. The fact that they push the lottery on people but think poker (a skilled form of gambling) is the debil, pisses me off.

Crazy. They said if you are the sole winner and take the cash option, your bring home would be 327 million (not o****ing local and state taxes, if applicable). I'm not sure that's accurate, but just what I heard.

There will be a minimum of three tickets that win this thing.

Bought a few.

I don't like how lottery pampers to the low income and old people.

Don't come in here and put a diaper on the festivities.

It's hypocrisy, for sure.

And way to not help out the schools, asshole. I have a kid that might be using the A+ program one day, so get your ass out there and buy a ticket.

I thought the boats did that?

Had a couple of extra bucks in my pocket and bought a ticket.

Probably have multiple winners this time around. Never usually play. Two bucks? In on this one.

Better odds than ever seeing Social Security in my life time.

Overall, lotteries typically run about a 35-percent profit,

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/27...#ixzz2DRxc0fl5

Come on..its for the schools.

It was a baby/pampers joke, but yeah, I bought a ticket.

I'm in. The drawing could be one of the best days of my life. How can I pass it up?

Why settle for that? When I can wait untill it gets..

ONE MILLION DOLLARS

http://i551.photobucket.com/albums/i...mfg/images.jpg

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We should totally spend $100 out of the SOC money for tickets. Then if we win we can make an offer to the Hunt's for the team. Welcome to Arrowhead, home of your Kansas City Chiefsplanets!

Nice thought, but not even close. Chiefs are valued at 1 billion.

http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations...on:asc_search:

Hey if anyone wins in this chatroom were leveraging the money and buying the chiefs. we'll get the halls, garmin, and a few others and we'll buy the chiefs from that pos chunt and win us some superbowls and LAMAR HUNT TROPHIES

with the 250 in cash we get, we can raise a lot from chiefs fans and all the super rich families in kc. it could be done

I got $55009716.00 in CC money so I'm good plus GVMNT doesn't tax on it so that is duh winning.

I like it, I just said to a co-worker that i would try if I won, but I like this idea equally as much

They're worth way more than the 250 millio we would get. TIC post. It's still okay to dream though! :D

I only put 10% down on my house, gotta be an investor(s) we can get loan(s) from. 250 mil is 25%

plus, after a year like this year, value drops....

I'm a longtime Chiefs fan, but when I win I'm going to limit my Chiefs investment to streaming the games online on my massive yacht as I anchor for the day in Bora Bora.

Apparently, you have better odds of lining up a trail of quarters from NY to LA and selecting the one quarter bearing a special marking.
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rainnman's idea seems less stressfull.

After taxes, we're talking roughly $200 million in take-home. I have a deal with a friend that we always split our Powerball winnings, so I'd end up with about $100 million.

I guaran-darn-tee that I would have the most diversified investment portfolio on the planet. The only way I would lose all of my money would involve a large meteor or the explosion of the sun.

Yep, I paid my idiot tax.

I'd probably do something like this:

$20 million in income-producing real estate of the most conservative kind possible, scattered around the country
$10 million in money markets and other conservative, conservative U.S. bank accounts.
$10 million in my house and other hard assets
$10 million in T-Bills and stuff
$10 million in cash in safety deposit boxes and buried holes in the ground
$10 million in conservative U.S. mutual funds
$5 million in bonds
$5 million in money markets and other conservative, conservative non-U.S. bank accounts.
$5 million in conservative foreign mutual funds
$5 million in gold
$5 million in high-value art and other collectibles
$5 million in moderate to aggressive U.S. mutual funds

If you win, you'll probably spend most of it hiding from your friends and relatives for the rest of your life.

CEO: Phobia
GM: PR_Capone
President of administration: Dane
Director of college Scouting: Mecca

Wonder what happens to those who win the lottery?

http://trixiesue.files.wordpress.com...b__430x304.jpg

You say that like it's a bad thing.

You always dream about what you'd do with the money. You always hear horror stories more so than success stories about the lottery winners. Luckily I don't have any drug addictions or gambling addictions that would get me into too much trouble, but I'm sure it would be absolutely maddening to see who you could trust.

I would personally pay off alot of my friends and family's debts. The worst thing about this day and age is rebounding from a distressing credit score, people need a fresh start and I'd love to give that to them. Outside of the normal big gifts to close family and friends, donations to charities I believe in, I would start with clearing others debt.

We could fly banners every day for the next 30 years.......

I paid my voluntary taxes today..

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb...ufk9o1_500.jpg

I'd spend my winnings on large foam cowboy hats, paddle balls, beer and a lifetime subscription to Rhode Island Slut newspaper.

Out of curiosity, I checked the math on that.

Its true, barely.

I put 10 bucks in the pot

Bought $10 worth of quick picks earlier in the week. It is scary to think that today you wake up poor and tomorrow you are suddenly worth $375 MILLION dollars. Mind boggling amount for sure.....

You just know that there is going to be a fight or legal battle over a group winning and someone who is excluded is going to sue....it's the American way!

Honestly, the idea of winning such a large amount of money is terrifying to me. I know that it would most likely ruin all my relationships with family and friends in some way. I would obviously help them out however I could, but I imagine some would resent you forever regardless, and others would never be able to take enough from you to make themselves happy. It would be a nightmare of never knowing who is really your friend anymore.

But the thought of all that money is so infantalizing.

The people who would resent you forever because you won some money aren't worth knowing to begin with.

****'em all.

I wonder how much it would cost to build the most impregnable, luxurious underground shelter, self-sustaining for at least 50 years...

The thing is, I would also need a doctor and medical facility available, as well as a supply of all my meds including insulin.

Crap, I also need to have my pacemaker replaced every 5 to 10 years.

I don't think I'm going to be able to hide away with all my millions.

Buy an old missle silo.

http://www.missilebases.com/properties

Actually, this isn't true.

The statistics are skewed when it comes to the lottery. The odds of picking the correct number of a random 6 number drawing are astronomical.

The odds of winning the lottery are much, much better.

Why?

Because someone always wins the lottery. Someone is GOING to win this lottery, if not this drawing then the next.

That means that of the, let's just say, 2 million tickets sold for this drawing, at least one will win. Even if one doesn't, and a million MORE people join the party, bringing the total cost of tickets up to 5 million for both drawings, you now have a 1 in 2.5 million chance of winning.

This is a closed system, so your odds of winning are greatly increased by the fact that A) Someone will win, and B) that winner will come from a limited group of players.

Yep. Take care of your family, change your phone number, cancel Facebook account, and disappear for two years around the world.

That would be cool if they'd also let me have a few old missiles to go with it.

And the one in Kansas should be close enough I could sneak out to Chiefs games.

Sounds like something that would get boring quick.

There would also be a few people of my choosing living there as well.

As well as every form of entertainment you could have in a missile solo.

Fetus for the rest of our lives and then some.

My plan is to buy out Pioli's contract from Clark and have him mow my yard and shovel snow for the rest of it's duration.

Maybe dig holes on odd days and fill them back up on the even ones.

I'm in a 70 person group that each spends $5 every time that lottery gets higher than $100 million. Thats 350 tickets. If you win its only a couple of million but its better odds than playing alone and its a fun little thing to do.

That's 175 tickets, actually.

well then you could make Austin Chief an offer he couldn't refuse. ;)

70X5 =350/ awww who cares, its wasted money anyways.:p

I think I do it just because I was honored to be asked to join their group.

The tickets cost 2 dollars.

I just flashed to the better off dead newspaper delivery boy, "that's two dollars, plus tip" as he opens the switch blade comb

no shit, since when is it not a dollar? When did it go up?

I think the most fun part about winning this would be handing out the occasional $1,000 tip at a restaurant while living my nomadic life across the country. I've always fantasized about being an anonymous guy who walks in, does some good, and then disappears forever, leaving people to tell the story for the rest of their life.

The 'most fun' statement above assumes that my marital status would deny me the whole '2 chicks at the same time' part. However, if I brought home the winning ticket, it would be a really good time to ask.

About six months ago, maybe a year. I'm curious how it turned out for them. Doubling the price seems like it would damage the market, but at the same time they actually improved some elements, like the likelihood of getting a decently big prize even if you don't hit the big one.

I've always thought that instead of making these insanely large payouts, they should spin off toward more million-dollar winners. So increase the jackpot normally until it hits something like $250 million, but after that you divert half the money toward increasing the lower prizes. I think it would be better for the game to create one winner of $250 million and 100 winners of $1 million, than to create one winner of $350 million.

What kind of math are you using here? The fact that "Somebody" will win doesn't change the requirement that you still have to pick the correct sequence of 6 numbers in order to do so. The odds of picking the correct sequence of numbers remains the same, regardless of how many people are trying. They don't remove the losing number sequences that have already been picked, so the number of people playing is irrelevant. You're still playing against all other possible number sequences, not all other possible players.

This. By his logic someone would win every draw.

Right?
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If I didn't have any responsibility and a little bit of money... I'd buy one of these places and grow a shit ton of pot....

So you would net like 196 million if you took the lump sum. I know what I would do with that kind of dough!

pampers?
well that is usually what my tickets are good for
max lottery win
$7
bought a 6 pack

Buy ChiefsPlanet?

odds are 1 in 175,000,000

IF I have done my math right:
175,000,000 nickels stacked up would run over 130 miles.

you have to pick the one nickel that is the winning nickel.

Yet we still play.

Because the odds of winning when buying a ticket are infinitely greater than your chances when you don't.

I have a stat phd friend who told me that your chances of winning are about the same whether you buy a ticket or not. I don't pretend to understand fancy numbers and probabilities and such, but somehow I think you're both probably right.

I can understand this reasoning from a money standpoint, but I still feel like .00001% is still much greater than .00%

I still bought my ticket.

ummmm I understand what he's saying somewhat but people that have bought a ticket HAVE won statistics be damned, NO ONE that didn't but a ticket has ever won.
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