March 6, 2007
Mega Millions Jackpot Up to $370 Million
People are going Mega Millions crazy! That's why the estimated jackpot for tonight's Mega Millions jackpot is now $370 million. That's up from an estimate of $340 million on Sunday and $355 million just yesterday! The odds of winning the jackpot is listed as 1 in 176 million.
Because the jackpot is the largest in the game's history, all 12 participating states agreed to move the drawing from Atlanta to Times Square. Hosting the drawing is New York Lotto's own Yolanda Vega. That just doesn't have the same ring as when Vega says her name on the air. The winning numbers will be drawn at 11 PM.
Gothamist has our numbers tickets purchased already. And yes, the lottery is for fools, but we couldn't resist the lure of losing out in $370 million. Are you planning on playing?
Update: The numbers drawn were 42-39-29-22-16, and Mega Ball was 20. Tickets with the winning numbers were reportedly sold. We'll see if anyone realizes they have them!
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From an old SF Chronicle article:
"If every time you drove a mile, you bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket, it would take about 360 roundtrips to the moon to win the jackpot. Some other things you should know about your chances of hitting the jackpot in the Mega Millions lottery:
-- The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 175 million.
-- If you bought 50 Mega Millions lottery tickets a week, you would hit the jackpot an average of once every 68,000 years.
-- If you knew one person in Canada, and you had to draw at random one name out of a hat containing the names of every person in Canada, you would be 5.7 times more likely to draw your friend's name than hit the Mega Millions jackpot."
eh. spending $1 on a ticket is no big deal for a little fun. dropping $10, $20, or even $100 for tickets (as the people on line in front of me did) is foolish.
Yeah, I agree. I bought one, even though I know the statistics. I felt sad for the people spending more than $1 because it doesn't really increase your odds.
actually spending $2 would double your odds from $1. so instead of 1 in 175million your odds would be 2 in 175 million or about 1 in 88 million.
velvet-sea.blogspot.com
I like the comparison to drawing a Canadian's name out of a hat!
But smitty, you odds do improve, quite dramatically with that second ticket! The difference between buying 99 and 100 tickets is negligible, but the difference between buying 1 and 2 tickets is quite large. Using the Canadian example, you'd be only 3 times more likely to pick your friend's name. So go out and spend those extra 100 pennies.
Or give them to a homeless person because that would be a much better use of your money.
sounds impressive when you say "double your odds," but when you're talking about a 1 in 175 million chance, versus a 2 in 175 million chance, "doubling" your odds in this case is negligible. most people think they are significantly increasing their odds, which they are not. we tend to think of buying two of something as cutting the odds in half, but on such a massive scale you'd have to by tens of thousands of tickets before you'd make a dent in these odds.
The doubling your odds is lying with statistics. Buying a single ticket doesn't increase your odds (over not buying a ticket), because your odds are still zero. 0.000001% = 0.0%. So doubling your odds, still equals zero. Either way, you have to be in it to win it, so i'm buying a tix.
When is "zero" not zero? When people win. Hang the cold. I'm heading down to the store, but only for one ticket. Then when I win, you'll all be sorry, suckas! ;-)
Those stats above are pretty amazing. I don't usually buy tickets but this Jackpot is too tempting. That being said, I bought 5 bucks worth and got a free pick. 6 chances :-P
I went in with a couple of people to buy a bunch of tickets. IT's just fun for the price of a Starbucks drink.
bottom line? SOMEONE will win... if you don't buy a ticket, the odds are 100% that you WON'T win.
bottom line? SOMEONE will win... if you don't buy a ticket, the odds are 100% that you WON'T win.
[11] Posted by: anon | March 6, 2007 9:22 PM
AMEN! Enough with the statistics; it's just a buck and you're taking all the fun out of it. When I went to the bodega and got my ticket, it was fun conversation for all of us gathered in there buying our lucky ticket, people who wouldn't usually give each other a second glance. I think that's kind of nice.
I won!!!!
Someone in Jersey and someone in Georgia won. Luckies!