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i always assumed the lottery was bad, but i never played more than 1 ticket on occasion before this week. i do play a good bit of Keno while drinking (i like watching the balls), and am used to getting some of my money back a decent amount of the time. but with lotto, nothing. 40 games at least (yup, i'm a total degen, the jig's up). but nada. not a dollar back. it's so painful. why do people do it?

i mean i understand it mathematically (skewed to the jackpot), but emotionally, it's so crushing. how do people play this thing day in day out? it's like throwing money into a hole.

i always assumed the lottery was bad, but i never played more than 1 ticket on occasion before this week. i do play a good bit of Keno while drinking (i like watching the balls), and am used to getting some of my money back a decent amount of the time. but with lotto, nothing. 40 games at least (yup, i'm a total degen, the jig's up). but nada. not a dollar back. it's so painful. why do people do it?

i mean i understand it mathematically (skewed to the jackpot), but emotionally, it's so crushing. how do people play this thing day in day out? it's like throwing money into a hole.

dude are u serious? wheeler system brah

ALL SERIOUS LOTTERY PLAYERS

gigglez

dude are u serious? wheeler system brah

i'm seriously buying a powerball ticket tonight. and i perfected my own winning strategy: take the annuity.

the annuity payments are guaranteed, the stock market is not. and the lottery company is solid like the IRS. seems like super easy choice to me. people were giving up 50M or so by taking the lump sum in this last Mega Millions jackpot. 50M is more than most jackpots in other lotteries and people are just like, "whatever, gimme cash now." sick sick sick.

What state did Obama come from.....? Makes sense

i'm seriously buying a powerball ticket tonight. and i perfected my own winning strategy: take the annuity.

the annuity payments are guaranteed, the stock market is not. and the lottery company is solid like the IRS. seems like super easy choice to me. people were giving up 50M or so by taking the lump sum in this last Mega Millions jackpot. 50M is more than most jackpots in other lotteries and people are just like, "whatever, gimme cash now." sick sick sick.

You miss out on interest and potential investment revenue though. Even if you bought bonds it would be better than the state holding the money then you getting depreciated dollars later.

I'm in Illinois though- I think a penny stock is a safer investment than the state of Illinois.

If you take the annuity though because it's not index linked (I'm assuming) you're vulnerable to currency debasement. Also lol at getting taxed on a lottery win.

Getting taxed on a lotto win is super disgusting if you ask me.

You miss out on interest and potential investment revenue though. Even if you bought bonds it would be better than the state holding the money then you getting depreciated dollars later.

I'm in Illinois though- I think a penny stock is a safer investment than the state of Illinois.

A time-share in Boise is a better investment than the Illinois state government.

You miss out on interest and potential investment revenue though. Even if you bought bonds it would be better than the state holding the money then you getting depreciated dollars later.

I'm in Illinois though- I think a penny stock is a safer investment than the state of Illinois.

educate me please? how am i not getting interest when money is growing? how much value is there in guaranteed interest vs stocks and bonds? and would i be getting paid by my state or all the states that are part of the lottery? it doesn't seem likely to me that one state would bear the burden of a 640 million jackpot.

All of the securities used to support both games' jackpots offer some level of U.S. Government backing. It is important to note that the lottery is invested in these securities, not the winner. The winner has a contract with the states to pay the annual prize payment, no matter what happens to the securities.
http://www.megamillions.com/faqs/#16

As a side note if I did win that much money I wouldn't make it public.

If you can't beat it- cheat it!
I have a simple strategy for playing lotto. I buy in for the minimum, make my 1 outer and then make a quick exit and leave other lotto players in embarrassment and disgust, vomiting and dizzy, complaining about how they should have won because of tens and thousand of combos they had and that i'm such a fish with my one outer lotto ticket.
I'm up on keno btw.

educate me please? how am i not getting interest when money is growing? how much value is there in guaranteed interest vs stocks and bonds? and would i be getting paid by my state or all the states that are part of the lottery? it doesn't seem likely to me that one state would bear the burden of a 640 million jackpot.

All of the securities used to support both games' jackpots offer some level of U.S. Government backing. It is important to note that the lottery is invested in these securities, not the winner. The winner has a contract with the states to pay the annual prize payment, no matter what happens to the securities.
http://www.megamillions.com/faqs/#16

Your money is far from guarantee'd living in the US right now. You are almost 100% going to hit some big inflation over the next 25 years so if you don't invest now in something your money won't be worth the same.

As for taking lump sum to invest now as opposed to annuity I think it's pretty obvious what the other posters point is. However if you don't want to hire someone to manage your money and are happy with the annuity there is nothing wrong with that. Either way you are pretty set for life lol..

Yea I mean no matter what you will have more money than you can reasonably spend lol.

The Fed typically shoots for 3 percent inflation- they actually try to inflate the currency which is essentially stealing from every person in America and investors around the world. 25 years even at the target rate (the real rate will almost absolutely be higher) is a ton of value lost. So when you get your 25th payment- a million dollars will be a fraction of what it is today.

i could be way off track but im pretty sure the total for the annuities equals (the lump sum+ interest over all the years)
im not sure if they try to account for inflation but im pretty sure they pay very smart people a whole bunch of money to calculate it.
it would make sense for them to give out more money over a longer period to save a bigger expense in one year on their financial statements, but lets get real, if they did give the same amount (annuity= lumpsum+ interest) as i mentioned before people would still think they were getting more money with the annuity.