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Mega Millions $640 Million

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DeyDurkie5's avatar

DeyDurkie5

Senior Member

11,324 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:08 PM
If no one wins, the jackpot for tuesday's drawing will be 950million
Mar 30, 2012 10:08pm
G

gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:09 PM
OSH;1132320 wrote:The first ball has to be the first number on the ticket, the second ball the second number...and so forth.

So, if you match the first, third, and fifth balls, then you match three balls and win $150 or whatever the pot is.

You don't win if your first, second, and fourth numbers match the first, third, and fifth balls.
No. Each of the 5 is drawn only once, so order does not matter (they are listed in ascending order on the ticket). The mega ball can then be any of the 55(?) numbers again.

My question is how does the computer picks work? I thought it would, in the past, give you one of the remaining numbers not already picked at random, so the longer you wait then theoretically the better your chances of holding a unique ticket. But that seems like too technically advanced, especially when you consider what happens when every number has been picked (fairly likely for this week).
Mar 30, 2012 10:09pm
gorocks99's avatar

gorocks99

Senior Member

10,760 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:09 PM
DeyDurkie5;1132329 wrote:If no one wins, the jackpot for tuesday's drawing will be 950million
With over 600 million tickets sold for this drawing, the only odds that might be worse than no one winning tonight's drawing are the odds to actually win tonight's drawing.
Mar 30, 2012 10:09pm
G

gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:12 PM
DeyDurkie5;1132329 wrote:If no one wins, the jackpot for tuesday's drawing will be 950million
For $172M or whatever it would be, you could theoretically buy every single number. Not sure how one could even accomplish that, but you'd have to bank that only 1 or 2 others won in order to make a profit (with a $950M jackpot). Would be hilarious if someone like Soros bought all the tickets and had the lone winner.
Mar 30, 2012 10:12pm
G

gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:15 PM
gorocks99;1132332 wrote:With over 600 million tickets sold for this drawing, the only odds that might be worse than no one winning tonight's drawing are the odds to actually win tonight's drawing.
That's over 3X the number of possible combinations, so we should see at least 3 winners, but could easily have 5 or 6. I wonder what the biggest scenario is - i.e. people who pick their own numbers there's probably some fairly common combos that might have a few dozen tickets.

Not that anyone would cry over sharing with any number of people, but thinking you might be the sole winner of $315M after tax vs. $52.5M (split 6 ways) is still a different ballgame. $315M I'm figuring out how many of my friends and family I can make millionaires, along with maybe funding my own charity. For $52M you just have to scale down you ambitions a bit.
Mar 30, 2012 10:15pm
chicago510's avatar

chicago510

Original Chatterer

5,728 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:17 PM
Lol, it would suck (relatively speaking) to win---and be spending your $400 mil in your head---only to realize you have to split it 5 ways.
Mar 30, 2012 10:17pm
2kool4skool's avatar

2kool4skool

Senior Member

1,804 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:25 PM
The chances of a lone winner have to be next to nothing. For one, there's such a large pool of players. Secondly, human selected numbers will generate a pattern. For instance, lots of 1-12's and 1-31's because of birthdays, lucky numbers are usually single digits, etc.
Mar 30, 2012 10:25pm
G

gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:28 PM
chicago510;1132342 wrote:Lol, it would suck (relatively speaking) to win---and be spending your $400 mil in your head---only to realize you have to split it 5 ways.
Haha....Worry would immediately set in as you realize you won't get $400M, and then start wondering how many you have to share with. Imagine waking up the next morning to discover by some incredible fluke there were 100 winning tickets. $4M!!!!
Mar 30, 2012 10:28pm
G

gut

Senior Member

15,058 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:33 PM
2kool4skool;1132349 wrote:The chances of a lone winner have to be next to nothing. For one, there's such a large pool of players. Secondly, human selected numbers will generate a pattern. For instance, lots of 1-12's and 1-31's because of birthdays, lucky numbers are usually single digits, etc.
Maybe. That other post said there was only a 94% chance someone wins, so I'd have to guess there's still like a 1-2% chance of a lone winner - very small, but still much greater than your odds of winning.

If most people go with the machine picks - which I'd guess with a bunch of infrequent players jumping in - you figure 3-4 winners, but I have no idea how many draws you need to pick all 172M numbers at random - their estimate is @3X equates to 94% or so coverage. If number like you're talking about hit then you could be talking 6-10 winners, maybe more.
Mar 30, 2012 10:33pm
OSH's avatar

OSH

Kosh B'Gosh

4,145 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:39 PM
gut;1132331 wrote:No. Each of the 5 is drawn only once, so order does not matter (they are listed in ascending order on the ticket). The mega ball can then be any of the 55(?) numbers again.

My question is how does the computer picks work? I thought it would, in the past, give you one of the remaining numbers not already picked at random, so the longer you wait then theoretically the better your chances of holding a unique ticket. But that seems like too technically advanced, especially when you consider what happens when every number has been picked (fairly likely for this week).
Ah...makes sense. It doesn't show it making that much sense on the lottery website. But...I also didn't have my tickets there in front of me as I watched the "how to play" stuff.

I think the MegaBall is 1-46. The others are 1-56.
Mar 30, 2012 10:39pm
D

dave

Senior Member

4,558 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:47 PM
line was 10 deep at 9:30 at a suburban kroger. can't imagine what some of the gas station lines are like in busy areas.
Mar 30, 2012 10:47pm
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

Senior Member

12,319 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:52 PM
dave;1132371 wrote:line was 10 deep at 9:30 at a suburban kroger. can't imagine what some of the gas station lines are like in busy areas.
A store in Salem that occasionally cracks $1,000 in total machine lottery game sales (they sell a ton of instants, which aren't included in that total), did over $6,000 in Mega Millions today.
Mar 30, 2012 10:52pm
chicago510's avatar

chicago510

Original Chatterer

5,728 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:54 PM
What is the profit for the merchants? Has to be something decent or they wouldn't have those huge machines on the counters
Mar 30, 2012 10:54pm
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

Senior Member

12,319 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:55 PM
chicago510;1132376 wrote:What is the profit for the merchants? Has to be something decent or they wouldn't have those huge machines on the counters
Online games are like 3.5%, if I recall. I know instants are 5.5%
Mar 30, 2012 10:55pm
chicago510's avatar

chicago510

Original Chatterer

5,728 posts
Mar 30, 2012 10:59 PM
Moment of truth on ABC. I don't even have a ticket but I think the hype is fun.
Mar 30, 2012 10:59pm
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

Senior Member

12,319 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:00 PM
YOUR NUMBERS:

2, 4, 23, 38, 46
Mega Ball: 23

IF NO ONE HITS: $975 Million
Mar 30, 2012 11:00pm
chicago510's avatar

chicago510

Original Chatterer

5,728 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:01 PM
2-4-23-38-46 MB-23



2, 4 and 23 were probably popular plays
Mar 30, 2012 11:01pm
SportsAndLady's avatar

SportsAndLady

Senior Member

35,632 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:07 PM
Any you guys win?
Mar 30, 2012 11:07pm
W

WebFire

Go Bucks!

14,779 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:08 PM
Sweet! I didn't hit a single number!
Mar 30, 2012 11:08pm
2kool4skool's avatar

2kool4skool

Senior Member

1,804 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:08 PM
Can they tell if somebody one yet?
Mar 30, 2012 11:08pm
OSH's avatar

OSH

Kosh B'Gosh

4,145 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:08 PM
Nothing here. Stupid Ohio Lottery website wouldn't load either.

I got 2 numbers on one ticket but missed on the MegaBall. That's it.
Mar 30, 2012 11:08pm
W

WebFire

Go Bucks!

14,779 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:09 PM
2kool4skool;1132389 wrote:Can they tell if somebody one yet?
I think they know within the hour.
Mar 30, 2012 11:09pm
LJ's avatar

LJ

Senior Member

16,351 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:10 PM
Nothin
Mar 30, 2012 11:10pm
Lovejoy1984's avatar

Lovejoy1984

Senior Member

5,277 posts
Mar 30, 2012 11:11 PM
Anyone have the numbers?

Or was that what was posted above?
Mar 30, 2012 11:11pm