Half a BILLION DOLLAR Lottery

[zen]

ticket in hand!

[surreal]

where do you buy tickets? just like a regular one at the gas station?

[ShyguyXPC]

I would just buy a datacenter, make it easy on myself.
Honestly though, I'd probably upgrade a few rigs, then most of it would be spent on other stuff. A private island comes to mind first, and it's not going to be cheap to have google run net to it either.

Something like this?

East Sister Rock Island - Luxury Private Island for Sale and Rent

[Taxmancometh]

I'd just look in Rob Report for my toys. Robb Report - The Global Luxury Source

[no1_vern]

Pretty much any gas station that sells lottery tickets - make sure they are the Mega millions lottery tickets! Its over $540 Million now.
List of states - Where to Play Mega Millions

[surreal]

It's too cold to go out tonight, I'll write it on my hand and see if I can read it and remember to do it tomorrow. right...

[RicheemxX]

Nice island but I'm not sure about the low lying area there. First hurricane hits or something else with tidal surge and you are pretty much a goner!

[Epidemic]

DOOG don't drink.
DOOG don't smoke.
DOOG don't gamble--not even a Church raffle.

[/SIZE]

The lottery is not gambling. it is donating tax money to the schools for the children. It is a tax that you can volluntarily spend on something you want government to do.

[MTAtech]

As a statistician, I can tell you that the odds of winning the Lotto with one ticket is approximately equal to not buying any ticket, as one is 20 times more likely to get hit by lightning. So, plunking down $20 makes your odds equal to getting hit by lightning.

EDIT:
I bought $5 worth this morning -- just in case.

[MTAtech]

The lottery is not gambling. it is donating tax money to the schools for the children. It is a tax that you can volluntarily spend on something you want government to do.

The money doesn't go to schools. That's a farce. The State takes in Lotto money earmarked for the schools but also subsidizes schools from general revenue. If more Lotto revenue is derived, they reduce other state subsidies.

[Epidemic]

As a statistician, I can tell you that the odds of winning the Lotto with one ticket is approximately equal to not buying any ticket.

EDIT:
I bought $5 worth this morning -- just in case.

As a statistician your chances of winning are ifinitely higher buying 1 ticket over not buying one.

1/174,000,000 = 5.74713E-09

0/174,000,000 = 0

your odds are beyond millions, beyond billions, beyond trillions of times greater buying a single ticket than not buying one

That said it is a sucker bet so I bought 10 dollars worth

[Steve R Jones]

There was this guy Joe, who decided to win the lottery. He decided the best way to do that was to pray everyday.

So every morning at dawn, rain, fog or shine, Joe would go into his backyard face east, spread his arms wide and say, "Dear God please let me win the lottery today."

He did this every day for two years.

Then, one cloudy morning as Joe stood there the clouds parted and a beam of sunshine engulfed in a radiant glow. Then a booming voice from the heavens said, "Joe, met me half way on on this - buy a ticket."

[Chuckiechan]

We got the whole fam damily in a pool... guess who is fronting the money... Yup. Me. What could possibly go wrong?

9 tickets times 5 lines each = 45 entries....

Odds are: Infinity minus 45...

[tony_j15]

As a statistician, I can tell you that the odds of winning the Lotto with one ticket is approximately equal to not buying any ticket, as one is 20 times more likely to get hit by lightning. So, plunking down $20 makes your odds equal to getting hit by lightning.

EDIT:
I bought $5 worth this morning -- just in case.

I tried to explain the stats to the fiancee. She went out this morning and bought five lines.

Also, good joke, Steve.

[osprey4]

As a statistician your chances of winning are infinitely higher buying 1 ticket over not buying one.

Ep, look at it this way.

Chances of winning if I buy a ticket, virtually nil.
Chances of winning if I don't, nil.

Chance of losing a dollar if I buy a ticket, 100%.
Chance of losing a dollar if I don't, 0%.

[Epidemic]

What odds did you try to explain? I mean did you tell her that her chances are infinitely greater by playing than not? Or did you explain that her odds were 1 in 34 million vs that of one ticket being 1 in 174 million.

My odds are a kick ass 17 million for my 10 bucks.

when she wins think about how stupid you are gonna feel

[RicheemxX]

At $640m I'm pretty sure I'll risk loosing a dollar or two. I already know someone that won years ago. It was the old Ca. super lotto and the odds were a bit better but they hit $3m. It was a nice tidy sum that didn't set them up for life but it certain made their lives easier.

[Epidemic]

Ep, look at it this way.

Chances of winning if I buy a ticket, virtually nil.
Chances of winning if I don't, nil.

Chance of losing a dollar if I buy a ticket, 100%.
Chance of losing a dollar if I don't, 0%.

Absolutely incorrect evaluation there. chances of losing a dollar are 99.999999425%

not
100%

not only are wrong in your calculation of the big pot. But your overall odds of winning are 1 in 40 of winning some prize.

So your real chances of losing are only 97.5%.

[Taxmancometh]

5 Reasons You Don't Really Want to Win all that Lottery Money - Yahoo! Finance

[GroundZero3]

That article is so stupid, first off you don't tell people (you don't have to claim it right away i believe you have like 6 months to claim it) and you can have a lawyer or a representative in most states pick up the check so others dont know you won that money.

That's just a filler article for Yahoo