The next big Powerball jackpot is $675 MILLION

CA Lottery ^ | 1/6/15

[LibWhacker]

http://www.calottery.com/play/draw-games/powerball

[GraceG]

So does this mean no one won tonight?

Lottery = State ran Gambling for poor dumb people.

[sten]

$675m ?

pretty soon, they’ll be talking real money

[PLMerite]

“Lottery = State ran Gambling for poor dumb people.”

Maybe. But if I win the whole schmear, I’ll pick up the tab for all the FReep-a-thons for the next ten years.

[goldbux]

The probability of winning the lottery is the same, whether you purchase any tickets or not.

[LibWhacker]

Right, nobody won.

[GraceG]

“Lottery = State ran Gambling for poor dumb people.”

Maybe. But if I win the whole schmear, I’ll pick up the tab for all the FReep-a-thons for the next ten years.

I may get a few quarters out of the change jar and buy a ticket for a lark.

[GraceG]

The probability of winning the lottery is the same, whether you purchase any tickets or not.

correction:

The probability of winning the lottery is statistically the same, whether you purchase any tickets or not.

You have a nonzero chance of winning if you buy a ticket but the non zero is far less than 1% it is more like 0.0000001%

You have a ZERO chance of winning by not buying a ticket.

Which means unless you have a time machine playing the lottery is essentially just throwing money away.

[Vermont Lt]

Yes you are correct. The odds of winning are astronomical. It’s like getting hit by lightning.

My brother was hit by lightning last summer. So, while rare, it happens.

It’s worth $2.

[goldbux]

Yes, you're correct. The probability of winning the lottery is essentially zero even if you purchase tens of thousands of tickets. But stating it with such precision drains the modest sarcasm from my original sentence.

[TLOne]

For winning the jackpot prize it’s closer to 0.000000029

[PCPOET7]

I refer to state lottery as a stupidity tax. believe it or not numbers ran buy the mafia pay out better.

[GraceG]

[ Yes, you’re correct. The probability of winning the lottery is essentially zero even if you purchase tens of thousands of tickets. But stating it with such precision drains the modest sarcasm from my original sentence. ]

I love sucking the fun out of everything!

[Berlin_Freeper]

Good Luck!

[SunkenCiv]

Here’s some primes to play:

The game uses a 5/69 (white balls) + 1/26 (Powerballs)

Pick 5 — 23,37,41,53,61

PB — 11

Win with these, send me a check for $2 million. Thanks so much, and you’re welcome. :’)

[PLMerite]

“I refer to state lottery as a stupidity tax. believe it or not numbers ran buy the mafia pay out better.”

Yeah, but you meet a better class of people in the 7-11.

[21twelve]

And they don’t bash your knees with a baseball bat if you lose!

[Carthego delenda est]

From the Powerball website:

Odds of winning the Powerball Grand Prize: 1 in 292,201,338.00

http://www.powerball.com/powerball/pb_prizes.asp

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The probability of winning the lottery is the same, whether you purchase any tickets or not.

The difference between 0 and any positive number, no matter how small, is substantial. After all, the probability that any one of us would ever exist at all is incredibly small, yet here we are. I put down $4 tonight on a couple of random powerball numbers, and will again Saturday if I remember - it's just for fun, and you never know...

[sargon]

Hey, if a state (or states) can generate decent revenue by running a VOLUNTARY numbers racket such as a lottery, I say "Go for it!", because it means there's that much less revenue that has to be raised by the more traditional coercive means.

And, additionally, despite that near zero chance of winning, there is eventually some poor schmuck who gets to turn $2 or so into a life-changing event, and become a multimillionaire.

I say "More power to 'em", and the rest of us "smarter ones" can stick with sports betting, fantasy sports, poker, casinos, horse tracks, the stock market, free enterprise, real estate, and scratch-off tickets.

Life is a crap shoot...