$425 MILLION: Largest Powerball lottery jackpot in history

Quote: Originally posted by justxploring on November 25, 2012

It's because of the "been there done that" syndrome. Even though 99.99% of people (actually more than that) don't win the jackpot, they get jaded by seeing "the same old dollar amounts". Psychologically, people just get more excited when they see rarely seen (or never before seen) dollar amounts. I play every drawing even when it's "only" 40 million.

I even play sweet million twice per week at $1 per game for a jackpot that's only 1 million (660 thousand in NY state after taxes). I'd be very excited to have $660,000, let alone 100's of millions. I've won more money playing sweet million by the way, with its much better odds, than I have in powerball. In about the last 2 years in sweet million, I got 4 numbers, 5 different times, for a total payout of $200. Plus many times I got 3 numbers for $3. At twice per week, that's $104 per year, so I'm actually a bit ahead in sweet million of total money won vs total money spent, and that's a rare thing in any lottery game.

Oh, my freaking God! I cannot believe the PB is 400 million dollars! The Powerball!

God, give me a cut of this! I will be praying for a cut of this!

No, I'm not getting excited. I haven't won anything yet.

Somebody is going to win because all the combinations possible has been bought. Just a question of who.

The current large jackpot is the result of a long string of games when the house did win. Cumulative-jackpot lotteries such as Powerball are essentially a massive transfer of value from the dupes who play when the jackpot is small to the wiser ones who wait until the jackpot is big, with the house taking a healthy cut along the way. Here's the one piece of solid advice in this column: If you play Powerball every day, stop playing Powerball every day. If your dollar can be spent for a 1 in 80 million chance of $10 million or a 1 in 80 million chance of $120 million, why would you choose the former? By Jordan Ellenberg.

I WILL PLAY THE LOTTERY SOMEDAY TO AVOID THE LOTTERY INSANITY. IT IS OKAY TO DREAM.

I AM A THRIFTY LOTTERY PLAYER BECAUSE I SAVE LINES TO PLAY SOMEDAY.

OUR REGULAR LOTTERY PROGRAMMING.

1) Playing the lottery more often for less lines= Playing a single line.

2) Playing the lottery less often for more lines= Playing multiple lines.

3) Playing the lottery less often for less lines= Playing a single line monthly or yearly.

4) Playing the lottery more often for more lines= Spending more money= Gambling addiction.

SET A LOTTERY STOP LOSS LIMIT TO MINIMIZE OUR LOSSES.

A lottery stop loss limit is very important to be a successful lottery player over the long term.

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY

I know for sure this jackpot will be hit this Wednesday because it will be me........ Come on Louisiana, take home the big money and send it straight to my account. If reporters come looking, ill be long gone.

A girl can dream and turn it into reality to a life she never had....

Uh Oh!

I respectfuly disagree.

There was approximately 50% "coverage" of the total possible number of combinations (175,223,510) when the PB jackpot got to 325 million for the August 15, 2012 drawing.  A little more than 86 million combo's (lines)were sold for that drawing, but many of the lines (numbers printed on the tickets) were duplicated, so that reduces the amount of coverage of possible combinations that were sold. (Duplicated lines of numbers sometimes produce more than one winner of a jackpot, but that didnt happen in August, there was 1 jackpot winner in Michigan) For those that dont know, "coverage" is defined as when the sales of tickets increases, a larger number of different possible combinations of numbers printed on the tickets is generated. The greater the percentage of coverage of the total possible combinations, the greater the chance of the jackpot being won.

I didnt see the amount of lines sold for last nights drawing yet, but I suspect the coverage will be about the same as August 15th's. My guess is that it will be greater than 50%.

For everyone that thinks the lottery is not rigged!

"That should tell you something about the odds of hitting all 5 numbers and the PB."

Yeah! think of how the biggest lottery was won by 3 freaking tickets!

Most that are high are always split with more than 1 winner it seams.

Instead of making the lottery payouts higher why not every time they draw numbers they keep drawing until they have a winner so at least 2 winning ticket holders per week  win some  worth while money???

Good luck everyone, it's a nail biter now.

$425 million sounds good to me......

     $425M+