When MegaMillions and PowerBall made their last matrix changes, there were talk of a possible $500M jackpot but it never happened.  I'm sure when PB changes its matrix again in January, there will such talks again.  There would be no advantage for any state to join an international game as long as PB and MM are available.

The problem is jackpots have to start out small because no state or country is going to contribute more to the jackpot then they can recover in tickets sales for each drawing and the odds of winning something have to be good enough to attract players while the jackpot is small so it's unlikely this game would be much different then what is already available in the states.

I agree with RJOh.

I also think this will create a lot more lottery scams.

A $20 raffle ticket gives us 1 chance to win one of the five or six $1 million prizes and for the same $20 we can get twenty chances to win one multi-million dollar prize playing a jackpot game. The difference with raffle games is that five or six tickets are guaranteed to win and there is a chance in jackpot games that no ticket will have the winning numbers.

There are pros and cons for both, but it really comes down to player preference of which is the better bet.

I don't agree that Gail Howard books help people win; they have wheels that get you to play multiple tickets which would increase your odds anyway even if they were multiple QP instead. I think one suggestion in the booklet said to "hang around lucky people" and that one method would guarantee you would win something but it required that you matched the Bonus Ball and not giving any help on how to match it.

I would play a "World" Lottery if it paid me in $ and not Stonesylvanian Krupeks or Ameros and hopefully the HQ or claim center is here and not Upper Slobovia. Headline: "World Lottery Winner dies after being bitten by tsetse fly while claiming winnings at World Lotto HQ in..."

Anyway, we had Mega 390M not too long ago. I wonder where the taxes are paid to, The Global Community?

I would guess the terminal could be the same one the store already uses but depends on what the matrix is. Betslips are running out of room, soon they will be the size of tablecloths to accommodate all the extra numbers! They don't say how much 1 ticket is? Say it is $1, the pot is $500M, then probably the odds are "only" 4 or 5 times that of PB or MM, but that will be pushing 1 billion to one! Due to space constraints on betslips I would think to have 6 or 7 white balls and the usual 1 or even 2 bonus ball(s). One thing they really must do is with those odds there has to be a reasonable chance to win smaller prizes even matching 2 numbers or charge more per ticket. Also I will assume they are not stupid enough to have this be computerized!

And yes the PB and MM should merge (as Powerball I would hope) because I'm tired of spending $ to go to PA to play PB. The only catch is if they merge they might significantly raise the matrix or else the jackpots will never get far past $100M.

When a state has a raffle for several $1M prizes, they are putting out the money up front and gambling that they will recover their money and make a profit on ticket sales.  I can't see any group ever putting up a $500M jackpot and gambling they will sell enough tickets to cover the prize and make a profit too.

This International game will be more like Spains "El-Gordo" (I think that is what it is called)  There isn't just going to be one winning ticket, there is going to be thousands.  I have always wanted a game like that.  But international is going to be crazy.  The logistics along are going to take years to figure out.  Different currencies, different languages.  It will be nice to see but a pain in the rear to get started.

Brad

If I was making the choice between which game to play based on how much I could potentially win, Mega Millions is the obvious choice and a International game with a $500 million jackpot would be better yet. They designed the games with more combinations making it more difficult to win by a small weekly play and increase the jackpots after each drawing so hopefully there will be more play on the next game. The odds of hitting the jackpot are exactly the same whether it's for $12 or $300 million, but the game sort of creates the illusion because as more combinations are played in each drawing, the chances of it being hit are increased. The only real guarantee would happen if all the combinations are played, but even if it does happen, the odds on any one ticket winning are still exactly the same as they were when the jackpot was $12 million.

Three days a week I have the choice to play any or all of 7 different online games and there are 8 games on the other four days. I can justify playing Mega Millions twice a week because of the huge jackpots but realistically my chances of winning a jackpot are very small. It really comes down to what can I reasonably expect to get back playing any game based on how much I can afford to play. I don't play all the games every day, but have played two of them in the same drawings many times. And the regular drawings are 7:29 so I still have the time if I make a small hit to take a chance on MM.

Last night the Rolling Cash 5 jackpot was $301,000 for matching 5 of 39 numbers so I had the choice of playing it or I could try to win $250,000 for matching 5 of 56 numbers playing MM. That choice isn't always that easy because the average RC-5 prize is usually around $120,000. It's not exactly a reasonable expectation to match 5 numbers in either game on the next draw with a $10 wager so I'll probably have to make many more $10 wagers trying to win a jackpot. When we first started playing lottery games we didn't think in terms of future wagers and future losses but after years of playing, it's more likely that most players will lose money chasing jackpots.

To limit our losses for future play, the overall chances of winning anything tells us what to expect. The overall chances of winning any prize in MM is 1 in 40 and the odds of that one chance winning $10 is 844 to 1 and 306 to 1 win $7. It's more realistic to expect to win back $2 or $3 for every $40 we bet and expect to lose most of our bet.

The total cost of play is much less chasing a 6 figured jackpot but winning a $100 grand won't help the player that needs $100 million to buy their own city or a small country.

The lotteries do the research before and have a good idea of how many raffle tickets they should expect to sell. The Florida and Michigan raffles sold out quickly and Ohio didn't sell all of the tickets in its first raffle drawing. But since the total ticket sales were more than they paid out, they still made a profit.

Good point...

like 2 years ago someone gave me the formula for calculating the odds of a game configuration with 2 bonus balls,(i lost the formula now, will like to know it again)....I realized and noticed that the range of the game with 2 bonus ball could be extremely small with 2 bonus ball and yet it will have the same odds as a very large range with 1 bonus ball...For example, this are not the exact odds, is just for the sake of argument and better explain what i am saying...For example a Pick4/16 + Pick1/6 + Pick1/9 will have the same odds as a Pick6/40 + pick1/20....or a pick6/49

Despite that the first configuration is from 1-16, while the other is from 1-40 and the other is from 1-49....So i guess they could use 2 bonus balls or 3 bonus balls and reduce the number of balls on the betslip...That was just 2 bonus imagine now 3 bonus numbers? It will surely reduce the number field....I think they will have to do this if they want for all the numbers to fit on the betslip...

about the jackpot of this Global lottery....They forget that if they pay 500 milllion to the person, 200 million will go on taxes leaving the person with 300 million and if that person divorces he is left with 150 million dollars plus child support so basically the Entire world strain itself to get 150 million a jackpot that Powerball gets every years and this lottery is going to be once a year also just like Powerball, so you are basically comparing it with Powerball, when actually this Global lottery supposes to be bigger than Powerball....Again it just prove that the lottery doesn't research their games nor research the impact their games will have...

Again this lottery should have been in the billions..At least 5 billion...

If this global lottery was in the U.S they will have had to pay 250 million in taxes, leaving them with 250 million and pay another 125 million on taxes leaving the person with 125 million...And suppose the person divorces his wife, he is left with 64 million....So from 500 million to 64 million, how fair is that...All that hustle just for nothing...What does a 60 million dollar millionaire can do for the economy? However if it was a billionaire, he could open up all sort of bussiness, practices, hospitals, specialized clinics and help the economy of a country and let's wait until the bussiness grow...What can a 60 million dollar person do? Only with his 60 million buy 20 million dollar house, 20 million for his family and 20 million in the construction of a building...Did i mentioned the law suits that comes with been rich?...Again the lottery does not research their games as they should....

5 or 10 Million take home, I can sleep at night. $500 Million?  NO THANKS!

The story just says $500 million or more. It does not give us any insight on the rarity that amount will be reached. For example, it doesn't give us the size of the matrix, so we don't know how it compares to Powerball and Megamillions as far as odds go. For all we know, the odds of winning the jackpot could be 1 in 800 million and the starting jackpot could be $100 million.

me too...

"In the US, if you offer people a multi-state game with a bigger payout, they don't bother with the local lottery."

BS, if they get large enough I play them for the better odds. In fact I play local lotteries far more than power rip off. But with a global lottery it also increases the chances of multiple winners. But $500 and up would be sweet.

tax is an interesting problem. here in australia the gov getes its tax by taxing everyone who buys a ticket. thats right 1/11th of all gambling wagers goes straight to the fed gov as a gambling tax.  so when aust. buys a international lotto ticket, We will pay our tax at the terminal, all the buyers will pay tax. doesnt matter if its won  here or not. In usa tthe gov will only get tax income when the ticket is actually won  there!

now it depends on whaqt you think is fairer, all the losers paying tax and the winner not paying it. so the gov gets their cut. or the winner paying the tax.

personally i dont think it should matter, Just keep it the way it already works in the juresdiction the ticket is bought and won in. i mean the tax i pay is 9c on ea $1 bet , i can live with that. if i win ,$1 mill , ive paid my 9c tax.

I think tax should be handled at local level.

now price

with international exchange rates always changing, the major location playing should be the basis of price and other countries should have a quate mechenism for when you want ot buy a game. like if u want to get a check cut on a forign bank you get  buy or sell price based on the daily rate. same for international lotto. The unlucky areas that doesnt have sell the most tickets. there would be a daily ticket price quoted at the terminal. when u go to buuy a ticket, the machine would print a quote before the sale for you to approve of the cost.

now if u lived in either USA or europe, well one of those 2, you would always pay the same price as the price will be based on their dollar. the rest of the world would have the varying price.

Considering they can't even get Germany or Italy to join Euromillions I really don't see this happening.