Mega Millions jackpot soars to $476 million for March 30; no top-prize winners

Star Ledger ^ | March 28, 2012 | By Len Melisurgo

[SMGFan]

Turns out no one in any state matched all six numbers that were drawn in Tuesday night's massive Mega Millions drawing, so the jackpot will be growing even more massive — to a record-breaking $476 million, according to the New Jersey Lottery, the Pennsylvania Lottery and the official Mega Millions lottery website.

[wolfcreek]

Reminder to self: BUY MORE TICKETS!

It would be so cool if the pot got up to $16 trillion.;)

[BigCinBigD]

How much money do you need to admire the clouds?

From orbit?

[TomGuy]

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a ticket from out of state!?

IIRC, state residency isn't a requirement. But, the winner does have to redeem the ticket in the state. [That info pertained to the TX lottery; it may be different for the multi-state PowerBall.]

In the mid-90s, the TX lottery grew to over $40 million. There was a story of some guy in West Texas who bought $37,000 worth of tickets. After the drawing, he won ZERO.

[THX 1138]

A friend of a friend said to send him $500 and he would buy 500 tickets for me.

The fallacy here is that, if you buy 500 tickets and I buy 1 ticket, you have a 500 times better chance of winning than I do. But that's not the way it works. Your chance of winning is 1 in 175,000,000. 500 chances in 175,000,000 is statistically an insignificant difference from 1 in 175,000,000.

Put five bucks down and save the other $495.

[ConservaTexan]

I give the gubmint too much money already.

Lottery = Voluntary tax on the stupid

[ShadowAce]

The difference may be statistically insignificant—but the difference is still there. The odds are 500 times greater than if you bought just one ticket.

[sodpoodle]

Every FReeper should buy one ticket and wipe out the FReepathons;)

Have already pledged if I win it!!!!

[listenhillary]

I thought a group went together and bought tickets equal to 1/2 of a 200 million pot. They didn’t win. I don’t know how much they paid to get the tickets checked.

[woodbutcher1963]

18 of us in our office have been putting in $5 each since last week. I would be happy with $10 million.

[Graybeard58]

With that kinda money, I could pay most of my bills!

[jakerobins]

Hmmmmm Send Sandra Fluke a crate of Condoms or send the White House a crate of KOOL’s cigarette’s? I guess Millionaires have to make tough decisions too!! LOL

[C19fan]

Actually the expected payout of buying one lottery ticket is $1.20 using the after tax calculation in an earlier post which is greater than the $1 it costs you to buy a ticket. So it would make sense to buy up every possible combination or buy as many tickets as possible.

[LostInBayport]

Every FReeper should buy one ticket and wipe out the FReepathons;)

My plan if I win (I invested the impressive sum of $2 yesterday to no avail) is to become the next Koch Brother. I will fund so many great conservative and Christian causes that liberals will start a movement to ban lotteries!

[duffee]

“Just keep on farmin til the money runs out.”

I would buy 6 Power Ball numbers every 5 weeks (covered 10 draws) playing the same numbers, then PB changed to a $2 ticket price and made 4 of my PB numbers obsolete. Being a creature of habit and resisting unwanted change being thrust upon me, I switched my 6 numbers to Mega Millions and quit playing PB.

[ConservativeWarrior]

The Lottery is a tax on people who are poor at math.

[Manic_Episode]

If I won I would get my own gang of henchmen with matching jumpsuits with their henchman #s on the back.

[ChadsDad]

If I win, my new friend Chuck Norris, and I, will be posting from the Bat Cave.

[zeugma]

I call it the stupid tax..... :)

It's actually a tax on folks who don't understand math.

I'm Guilty of indulging. As little as a dollar is worth these days, it's worth a buck to think about what you might be able to accomplish with that kind of money.

[Manic_Episode]

Oooww...perhaps we can be archrivals! POW! SOK! BIFF!

[LostInBayport]

What about a purple top hat and a monocle?