YMBII
Proposed changes to Mega Millions game will raise ticket price to $5
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/350996
Excerpt:
.....If you weren’t paying close attention, you might have missed a huge announcement about how Mega Millions is slated to change. On Tuesday, proposed game changes were quietly revealed to the public in a small Montana Lottery Commission meeting. There is no official press release or statement on the official Mega Millions website discussing these amendments, but the meeting attendees confirmed that the changes were indeed being passed on to the Montana Lottery by the Mega Millions Consortium for their review and eventual approval.
“The Mega Millions Consortium has determined that in Spring of 2025, they will be implementing these changes,” Montana Lottery Marketing and Sales Director Anne Charpentier said in the meeting.
Charpentier said they anticipate a financial loss to some degree in raising the ticket cost. In the past, they have seen “upwards of 35% of players vacate the game” whenever there is an increase in the price point for a game, but it’s “always made up by the other [percentage] that have stayed and played that extra dollar that has been asked of them to stay in it.”
There may be a silver lining.
While dedicated lottery players may bemoan the hit their wallets are about to take from the increase, there are at least other positive changes to look forward to. One of those is increased odds at winning.
Currently, the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 302 million with five regular white ball numbers between 1 and 70 and one Mega Ball between 1 and 25 to choose from. The new odds at winning the jackpot will be 1 in 278.369 million. In comparison, the odds at winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.201 million. The odds at winning any prize in Mega Millions will slightly improve from 1 in 24 to 1 in 22.15.
The Lottery did not confirm exactly how the number matrix would change, but based on the new proposed odds, Lottery Post estimates that two gold Mega Balls will be removed from the number matrix to bring it down to 23 from 25, and that the regular white ball number matrix will remain at numbers 1 to 70.
The Lottery says that the average amount a jackpot will be hit at is projected to be about $694 million, a noticeable increase from the previous $387 million. These changes may result in more frequent billion-dollar jackpots.
There’s also the Megaplier feature, which will now be incorporated into every ticket purchase.
“The multiplier of 1X up to 10X will be added to each play automatically, so Megaplier, which was an optional purchase, is now going to be automatically added to each play,” Charpentier revealed. “It will be randomly selected for the player, so randomly, a multiplier will be added to each play.”
***********
Can’t make this up, they flat out say raising the prices will result in a financial loss but they will do it anyways. Typical state employee who has never worked in the private sector. Guess the Mega Millions casino never wins./s
The last time I played Mega Millions was probably over a year ago so it won’t effect me, just their comments though ignorance is golden and richly rewarded. The Mega Millions employees are probably paid very well. Will see if it happens much can happen before Spring 2025.
Going down the ‘rabbit hole’ of wearable blood-sugar monitors
Blood-sugar monitoring devices could soon be on the arms of millions of Americans after regulators cleared two new devices for use without a prescription. Is it a way to improve our health? Or is the data just another distraction?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ddk1ddme5o
Excerpt:
.....Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), which monitor glucose levels in real time, have been used by millions of diabetics for years. As a dietitian in Ontario, Canada, Ms Bekkedam had hers installed to better understand the technology for her patients with diabetes.
But her two-week trial became somewhat of a cautionary tale.
“I was freaking out,” she said. “I actually questioned, oh my goodness, do I have diabetes?”
She didn’t. And, after some extra research, she found that her glucose levels were entirely normal. But constantly getting updates on her blood sugar highs and lows, without having a medical condition that required it, incited some unnecessary fear.
“That’s where I think people could go down a rabbit hole,” she said.
But these devices may be in the hands - or on the arms - of many more people very soon, thanks to two recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for more widespread use. This week, Abbott Laboratories announced it had received federal clearance for two over-the-counter CGMs, including one for those without diabetes.
Use of CGMs is already rising, with the tell-tale arm patches easily spotted during morning commutes in major American cities. But experts say that even if there is no proven harm, there is little evidence to warrant spending the hefty fees - as much as $300 (£240) a month - if you’re not a diabetic.
Abbott’s Lingo, which is a CGM for people without diabetes, is marketed to consumers “who want to better understand and improve their health and wellness”. It was one of two devices cleared by the FDA for sale, and is already available in the UK. The FDA’s 510(k) regulatory process evaluates medical devices for safety and efficacy, but marketing claims are not part of the review.
.....Abbott said that flattening glucose curves could help improve energy, mood and sleep and pointed to studies showing the impact of glucose spikes on overall health, and the role of CGMs in monitoring them.
There is scepticism about such claims in the medical community, but one thing experts agree on is that CGMs have significantly improved the care of some people living with diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is when an individual’s pancreas stops producing insulin, so regular injections are needed. Type 2 diabetes is more common and occurs when the cells in the body become resistant to insulin and so more is needed to keep blood glucose levels within a normal range. It can usually be controlled through medication, diet, exercise and close monitoring, although some take insulin. Traditionally, diabetics monitored their blood sugar with finger-prick tests, but CGMs can alert people with diabetes when their blood sugars are running dangerously high and low, and if insulin needs to be injected.
But many experts say that the evidence for CGMs improving the health of non-diabetics is effectively non-existent. They insist the devices are, at best, a distraction and at worse could lead to dangerous fixations.
A growing trend
CGMs are big business. Market leaders have estimated sales will reach $20bn globally over the next four years.
Earlier this year, the FDA cleared the sale of an over-the-counter CGM made by Dexcom, meant for Type 2 diabetics who don’t use insulin but want to avoid regular finger-prick tests. And some new CGM startups, like Signos, Nutrisense and Levels Health, now market prescription devices off-label as tools for energy, mood and metabolism.
The devices are becoming popular among some in health, wellness and sports industries.
Dutch marathoner Abdi Nageeye, who will compete in the Paris Olympics, told Reuters earlier this week he is wearing a CGM to try to better track his body’s available energy.
.....A solution in search of a problem
But while some researchers and businesses claim that CGMs can have great benefits for the average person, many in the scientific community are sceptical, pointing to a lack of evidence.
Spikes in glucose are a symptom - not a cause - of diabetes, said Oxford researcher and dietitian Dr Nicola Guess. She said there is “no benefit” to CGMs for those who are not diabetic.
“Normally you would identify a problem and invent a solution to fix it,” she told the BBC. “This is backwards. It’s like we’ve got this technology, now we just have to find groups of people who we can convince that they need this technology.”
One key issue experts point to is that it is surprisingly hard to find much data on what blood sugar patterns look like in people without diabetes. This makes it hard to interpret an individual’s results in a meaningful way.
And most people’s sugars will spike with fruit - a food group rich with vitamins and nutrients - but that’s not a reason to stop eating it.
Dr Ethan Weiss, a clinical cardiologist with the University of California, San Francisco, agreed there is scant evidence that tracking glucose levels in people without diabetes can measurably improve their health.
“I’m aware of studies that show you can change your diet and you can decrease glucose spikes. I’m not aware of any studies showing that [tracking glucose] is actually doing anything beneficial, in a meaningful way, like reducing your risk of disease,” he said. “I think mostly it’s the devotees who believe it.”
But, Dr Weiss added, he was not aware of any studies showing the CGMs caused damage, either.
Others, including Dr Guess, said that the potential for harm was very real. Instead of focusing on the foundational building blocks of health - things like regular exercise, and a nutrient-rich diet - trackers like CGMs encourage us to focus on the minutiae of imperfect metrics. And, in worst-case scenarios, they can foster new problems, like disordered eating.
“I worry that instead of doing simple things to improve our health we are turning mealtimes into scientific experiments,” she said.
“I just feel like in some ways people have forgotten the point of living.”
*******
Have a very good friend who is a Type 1 insulin dependent diabetic. Dexcom CGM, for him, is a life saver. Before he had it he was constantly experiencing extreme low blood sugar that required the ambulance to be called to revive him. He told me from 2010-2020 he had 30 ambulance 911 calls due to his extreme low blood sugar. He joking told me that due to this the ambulance crews knew him and would recognize him when in the store or out in town. It eventually resulted in him totaling his car when he had one while driving. He left the ER unharmed by the accident, but afterwards was able to show his insurance company that the Dexcom CGM was a medical necessity. Since he has had it he has had zero incidents of extreme low blood sugar and has had no contact with ambulances.
Having said that, allowing non-diabetics to get the CGM is nothing but a marketing tool to allow the manufacturers expansion of their potential CGM users. Hypochondriacs and anorexics will use CGMs to their detriment.
I agree with the article in that this is a solution looking for a problem to fix. Sounds like government doesn’t it.