l love this changes to mega millions and i think both powerball and mega millions combined will definitly keep america excited two thumps up for mega millions.

I was originally bummed about the changes and was planning to  stop buying tickets  until I realized the 2nd prize could be multiplied up to $5 million with the megaplier.  1 in 18.5 million odds for a 2-5 million dollar payout on  a  two dollar bet is not great but not bad either.  I probably won't give them as much play as I did before but I will probably buy at least 1 ticket per draw.

Ohio"s web site says you can't buy tickets until Sunday

--------------------------------------------------

When do the new changes to Mega Millions take effect?
Beginning October 20, 2013, players can select five Mega Millions numbers from 1 to 75 and one Mega Ball number from 1 to 15.  The first drawing will be held on October 22, 2013.

Will the ticket cost more?
No, a Mega Millions ticket still cost just a $1.  Add another $1 for Megaplier.

When was the last date to place a 10 wager multi-draw wager?
The last multi-draw wager for a 10 wager bet was September 17, 2013.  If you purchase a multi-draw ticket between September 18 and October 18, 2013 the number of available draws will decrease.

When is the last Mega Million’s drawing before the changes take place?
The last Mega Million’s drawing will be Friday October 18, 2013. Sales for the new matrix will begin on Sunday October 20, 2013.

Can I cancel a Mega Millions wager?
No, Mega Millions wagers cannot be cancelled.

Will there be new bet cards available?
Yes, look for the new, easy to read bet cards at your local Lottery retailer after October 20, 2013.

I doubt Ohio will refuse to sell you Mega Millions tickets on Saturday -- unless they need to take an extra day to update their lottery terminals.  They probably just posted the wrong date.

Prior to this it was said the 5 + 1 games paid 12 to 15 jackpots a year.

I don't think that will happen wirh MM anymore with a 75 number upper matrix.

Going for 5 + 0 might be the best shot, if your state lotery jackpot in less than $5,000,000.

MM 5 + 0  1 in 18,492,204

IL Lotto JP 1 in 20, 358, 520. 6/52 game.

Of course with MM you might catch 5 + 1, but for the millions who never did it with a 56 number grid what makes them think they'll do it with a 75 number grid.

The lotteries are just as greedy as the players.

Someboy make an Over / Under on the number of MM jackpots per year once the new matrix starts.

Mega millions will hit 1 billion  by Dec no one will hit for a longtime !!!

They just lost me as a customer.I only play powerball when it reaches $100 million and above.

They put the new playslips out today.

We shouldn't play Mega Million starting Tuesday to make them change the game for the people.

I love it when people say they won't play till the jackpot is over 100 million, I definately need a new career. Though I do play a limited amount, I just do better, no matter what the jackpot is. I've been foutunate to break even and did get 4 in the mega millions once. Though I'll probably pull from the mega millions two picks and put them towards the NY Take 5 of which I do better and had to take away from when the Powerball increased to two dollars. And watch how the numbers start rolling in. That is probably the only thing so far I like, that it stayed at one dollar.

I won't play this now>> until it gets to>> One Billion>> Smack-a-Roos

I will play both MM and PB because I'm so bloody desperate.

I love how the lotteries when making the game much, much, much, much worse always announce that they're making it better.

If they weren't the government, we could sue them for fraud.

I noticed the cash value of Megamillions is significantly lower than it used to be (from about 68 percent down to 55!), matching similarly with Powerball's cash value, after this night's draw. Is that because Megamillions has switched to a 30 year annuity? Is USAMega going to reflect these changes in due time?

In no way is it better odds of winning a prize other than matching the mega ball. The previous odds of winning the Mega Millions Jackpot were 1 in 175,000,000. The New odds are 1 in 258,890,850. Correct me if i'm wrong but I think the odds of winning the powerball jackpot are about 1 in 195,000,000, which means it will now be easier to win a  jackpot in Powerball than it is to win one in Mega Millions. Yeah they made it easier to win a prize all right.. they made it easier to get your one dollar back for matching the mega ball but never mentioned it will be a whole lot tougher to win the jackpot prize.

This new Mega Millions game will have the toughest odds of winning a Jackpot prize out of any State Lottery game known to the public yet they are saying "it's easier".

The Only prize you will have better odds at is matching the mega ball by itself. I'm a little confused by this article. It says to match only the mega Ball the odd's are 1 in 21.... But since there is 15 mega balls to choose from how is that possible? Shouldn't the correct the odds be 1 in 15??

Then the odds state to match the Mega Ball + 1 White ball odds are 1 in 56. Odds of dong that are much tougher then that because there are 75 white balls to choose from plus 15 mega balls so the odds have to be over 1 in 75. SOmething is not right about the odds of winning they have listed in this article. Hopefully they won't put those incorrects odds of winning various prizes on the new play slips because that would be incorrect and misleading information to the players.

Mega Millions cost $1, Powerball costs $2. Odds of Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175,223,510. So to compare by cost, Mega Millions is still better because you can buy 2 tickets for the price of one Powerball. That gives you odds of 2 in 258,890,850 or simplified as 1 in 129,445,425. 

The odds are stated correctly. Remember, there is the chance of matching more than just the Megaball. So the chances of ONLY matching the Megaball are actually harder.

Come to think of it, I am contemplating ditching other lotto games, including The Powerball to play exclusively The Mega. Since The golden balls have been reduced to only 15 i.e. 1 through 15, I could play 15 draws with the same combination and should lady luck smile on me with great luck and say, match similar white balls wow, that $1m*15=$15m i.e. that means i have used my 15* to attain my multiplier that is far far better than the prepaid multipliers are told that pay up to only $6m. If this option is allowed and I can afford it, I may put down $15 for one day draw i.e. for Tuesday and another one for Friday i.e. a total of $30 which is not terribly bad and is affordable i.e. the sameamou of  money people play weekly (and at times daily0 in the casinos. at the moment, I play the Mega, Powerball, Fantasy Five and The Arizona Pick. I am tired of losing very much at these games in diversity i.e. winning the Powerball once in five months and the daily Fantasy 5 only two times this month (last month it was very much worse i.e. only one time, despite its being a daily game). With playing 15 draws in one day with the coming Megamillions matrix, at least one is psychologically assured of winning something. For instance, with the recent draw using the new matrix with 1 being the golden number, I could have won $2 which goes a long way in discounting my $15 investment....something to think about.

The odds for PB are about 1 in 175 million, almost exactly the same as MM was until a few hours ago. While the odds for PB might be better now, you have to spend twice as much money to get those odds. If you spend that for MM your odds will be about 1 in 130 million, which is significantly better than PB. Of course even with 2 tickets, your chances of scoring the 2nd place prize are still only 1 in 9 million, which is only slightly better than half as likely to win 2nd place in PB.

The odds of getting the mega ball right are 1 in 15, but that includes all of the mega ball plus regular ball combinations. The 1 in 21 odds are for getting the mega ball right and also getting all of the others wrong.

The odds for the mega ball plus one regular ball are based on having 5 chances to get that one regular ball. When they draw the first ball 70 of the 75 won't match any of the 5 numbers you chose, so there's a 70/75 chance it won't match any of your 5. If it doesn't match there will be 74 balls left, 69 of which won't match any of your 5, so there's a 69/74 chance of going 0 for 2. Again assuming you don't get a match it will be 68/73 for the 3rd ball, then 67/72 and 66/71 for the final ball. Putting it all together, the chances of not getting any of the 5 is  70/75 X 69/74 X 68/73 X 67/72 X 66/71, or about 70%. That leaves almost a 30% chance of matching 1 or more of the 5. The 1 in 15 chance of matching the mega ball times the .7 chance of missing all of the regualr balls makes the odds of matching only the mega ball 1/15 x .7, which is 1 in 24.4.

Sure you can have a chance at $5 million, but that's only if you pay twice a much for a ticket and the megaplier is 5 instead of 2,3 or 4. Depending on what state you're in a $1 ticket may get you better odds of winning the jackpot in the state game, which can be considerably more than $5 million. The overall structure of MM makes it a poor choice until the jackpot gets considerably bigger than the starting value.

That's an okay approximation but it's better to think in terms of combinations.

There are C(75,5) ways to get 5 of 75 and C(70,5) ways to get 0 of 75 [sometimes stated C(75-5,5-0)]. There are C(15,1) ways to get 1 of 15, or simply 15.

C(75,5)/C(70,5) * C(15,1) = ~21

Or you can go even simpler than that and just divide 258,890,850 by C(70,5) or 12,103,014 to get the same answer when rounded.

You can do this in Excel using the COMBIN function, or manually using the factorial formula.

As far as Megaplier goes, the average weighted multiplier for the new game is about 3.8667. From an EV perspective it is better to buy Megaplier vs. two tickets if the jackpot is less than about $85 million. A similiar analysis can be done for Powerball and state games that offer side bets.

What I expect is that one will see months and months go by without a winner, and small jackpot jumps because of low sales.   However, if the jackpot run out on the order of a year, it might reach half a billion annuity.    However, as the high priced Powerball tickets will be regularly producing jackpots on that scale, no one will be impressed.

When Powerball went to two billion - again with a lie that the odds were better, even though the expectation value was considerably lower - the Megamillions game was essentially ruined.   Since most if not all states have the same games, the losses in Megamillions certainly offset the Powerball increased profits.

One would hope that this new move is a failure - similar moves have failed in other State lotteries, in California and in Pennsylvania - since if it succeeds the lotteries will move to odds of one in one billion or more.   If this seems unlikely, we should consider that the odds on Powerball (at least seen as expectation value) and Megamillions are ten times higher than what State lotteries used to give.

They'll be more lottery losers than ever, as there will be way fewer winners.

Good bye old mega millions... how i will miss you. I think that the 5 of 5 prize is awesome the chance of winning 5 million dollars for only 2 dollars is amazing. In my home state you have to pay 25.00 to play to win 5 million and it is annuity. in Georgia, my other money pit... you pay 20.00 to win 5 million cash... i think i will save my 20.00 and purchase 10 tickets with multiplier... one for each of the next 10 draws... people piss and moan because the odds but truthfully they are all hard to beat. weather it is 1:1,000,000 or 1:258,000,000. The only way you win is God blesses you... OR Luck! I prefer blessings from God! Luck is a little too messy for me!

Nice changes.  Jackpots will be huge!!

"I will play both MM and PB because I'm so bloody desperate" Hey Golfer1960, that goes for me too! I play to win anything, any amount of a win will suit me just fine. May not put much money in on tickets, 4 bucks on MM only on Friday's, 4 bucks on PB only on Saturday's.. Don't play any of them on Tue,Wed...Just waiting for my numbers to come up! All my picks!! Might slip in  Quick Pick every now and then, but not to often. So good luck to all of you tonight!!! Wow Hard to believe I have been on here for ten years now!! Man, time has flew by!

Yo Slugger you are very astute. I read the article and did not pick up on those phony odds they are quoting. Good catch.

Metro, I'm confused.

I hear ya Rock. I'm pretty much in every MM and PB drawing. I buy 2 lines in each and play multiple drawings at a time (usually 4 or 5 drawings at a time). I only buy QP's now because I'm afraid my numbers will come out on a day that I don't play. That would be my kind of luck.

I stopped at 7-11 today at 7am and got the new bet slip. I was the first one in the store to get it because the guy had to open the pack and give me one.

As far as the odds of winning go, it's still virtually impossible!!!!!

Good luck brother!!

Does anyone know how many of each multiplier will be in the queue?  I seem to remember when PowerBall drew multipliers, they had a few 2x's, a couple 3x's, a couple 4x's and one 5x.

Anybody notice how much the annunitized JP jumped from the last drawing?... 18 million (37 to 55)... when's the last time that's happened in the past when the advertised JP was below 40 million?

I think MM is so confident that nobody will win next Tuesday with these new odds that they're betting the bank on it

Get ready for a billion dollar Xmas jackpot y'all.

quantam sublimal tape to win at lottery on amazon over 96 million winners so far so to answer all of the other folks on the forum YES I WOULD PURCHASE IT

I will be playing my state lottery games with better odds and less players.

Hey Roman, I noticed that large increase but I also noticed the small increase in the cash value: from $25.2M to $30.4M. So it jumped $18M in annuity and only $5.2M in cash value. Is that unusual or normal?

Actually, the cash value hasn't jumped much.  The only reason the advertised jackpot went up is because, like Powerball, Mega Millions switched to a graduated annuity, so they can boast a higher advertised jackpot for the same TRUE cash available.  In fact, Mega Millions can even boast a higher annuity than Powerball, because Mega Millions pays 30 annual payments increasing by 5% each year, while Powerball pays 30 annual payments increasing by only 4% each year.  Personally, I think they should have increased the opening jackpot to $20 MILLION since they did that trick, instead of just $15 million.

Spam-a-la-ma-ding-dong 

lol golfer when I say C(75,5) it means N choose K, or 75 choose 5.....how many ways (combinations) of 5 out of 75. It's part of how the odds are figured.

You can see how they are calculated yourself here: http://www.lottonumbers.net/lotto-odds-calculator.asp?Lottery=Mega-Millions-From-October-22nd-2013

Just click on the "Show/Hide" for each tier and it will explain the math.

The new Megaplier has six 5’s, three 4's, four 3's and two number 2's.

Just so everyone is aware, the Mega Millions info on Lottery Post's pages has been updated with the new changes.  So that means the statistics, Quick Picks Generator, Words and Phrases to Lottery Numbers, etc., have all been updated.

Unfortunately, we are in that transition period where the statistics won't have great meaning until at least a month or two passes.  But if you visit the stats page, it will be accurate -- just not extremely useful yet.

The info at USA Mega will be updated later this weekend, probably Sunday.

I tried buying  an advanced draw ticket today and the machine would not accept it. They offered to sell me one for one draw and I declined. I'll just wait until tomorrow.

I successfully purchased by Mega tickets this after arguing with the manager that the old numbers running up to 56 were not valid. The assistant manager who was on fortunately on hand at the same time requested me to try the old tickets to see if they were still valid. As expected they were invalid and they had to open new boxes for the new tickets. The same thing happened here in Arizona when the Megamillions was introduced in 2010, the managers and supervisors did not have a clue as to what was going on. I had previously e-mailed the state lottery office to tell retailers in advance when the changes would take place, though at times I think some of these managers and supervisors are goats and sheep despite having been foretold of these changes well in advance.

 I will also continue to play both.

I'm going to do what I said I was going to do when the changes were announced.

I'm going to send a playslip and $2 (as I always played the Megaplier) to the MUSL and say, "Considering your new game format I'll skip the formality of playing a ticket and here's your $2."

For anyone else who wants to do that here's the address:

Multi-State Lottery Association
4400 N.W. Urbandale Drive
Urbandale, Iowa 50322

I am still shackled to the game until the end of the year when my subscription ends. After that I am gonna accept defeat and find another game that I think I can win in my lifetime. Mass Cash 5/35 & Megabucks Doubler 6/49 are on my radars.

Well Well Coin Toss- l finally found out that the Zeta Reticuli Star System is in Iowa. To think l was focusing in on something 200 light years beyond the Persus Galaxy Cluster formation.

PB with a current jackpot of $216M Vs MM's  $55M,  is gonna end up, stealing the thunder away from MM, and raining on MM's parade.

Thank you to the posters who spelled out the odds and the changes.

Got my MM tickets today, so we shall see if first time luck on the new matrix pays off. They get one chance to reel me in . With 75 numbers in the draw...I'm not feeling confident that anyone will win....

same goes for me.  I would cry such tears of joy even to win enough to pay off my house.  My job as a medical transcriptionist has been hit by a double whammy:  Outsourcing to India and technology changed to speech recognition with an over 50% pay cut.  I average a little less than $12 an hour now where as a few months ago I took home up to $30 an hour with bonuses.  I am back in school but it will be years before I am done with my social work degree and I may lose my house, my car, everything within the next year.   We cut out all luxuries like satelite and going out to eat but a couple of bucks on the lottery is the last luxury I afford myself.

When I see people who only want to win over $100 million it makes me realize these are people who have probably never struggled.  They are lucky.

Cool. I will buy some for this week draw.  Good Luck everyone! :)

The estimated jackpot for MM is missing for some reason on the www.usamega.com home page.  It is 55 million on the megamillion site.

"We think that players will respond favorably to the new Mega Millions changes and expect even greater sales for the game," said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery."

..Gary Grief???..what the heck kind of name is that for a leader of a game that supposed to inspire optimism  lol..

Sounds like a cartoon script in the sunday papers  lol

You sound like one of those Ross Perot voters back in 1992!    I couldn't resist just joking with ya.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems Lucky4Life hang in there.  Congrats on going back to school.  The bright side of not eating out is it saves a ton of money that you can use to buy in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club and cook it yourself.  I prepare all my food and take it to work with me in plastic containers and it so much better for your health.  You can get back to work quicker and get more done.  In tough times like these when some jobs have to be cut the superiors notice things like that and it can save your job.  Also, these restaurants are loading up those foods with oils, grease, and butters which are clogging everyone's arteries big time and causing all the heart attacks and loss of loved ones way to early.

I love the changes to the lottery and think it will be a big success breaking the 1 billion dollar mark.  Lets just hope we don't have a public relations nightmare with one of the 75 white balls getting stuck coming out of the hopper.  Thats alot of balls!   Good luck Luck4life

what a joke i will not play it till it reach a half billion an then i might play $2 the odds was not good before an now this.

From one kitty to another, congrats on going back to school! Outsourcing is occuring in all industries from medical to legal to all businesses. What is interesting is that the work being done in India is not always on the same level as the US (in many cases) so we will see if things swing back. I hope you win the JP!

look at the cash 5 or pick 3 or4 ask your self how many times have you pick the numbers in those games? i have played a $ 100 quick pick on cash 5 an hit 4 numbers on 1 ticket 3 numbers on 4 ticket an 2 on 5 tickets..did the same amount on mega and power and the state reg lotto an i might get 3 numbers on 1 ticket or none...it all about the odds the odds are not good at all i will play it but till i reach a half billion an oly $ 2 maybe..i have odds in smaller games.an i have done it more  than a few times...but not the jack pot yet..

thank you Vegan and Artist!! 

I'm just going to play all 15 mega balls alone, and QP the white balls, and use the multiplier for a total of $30 per draw. Guaranteed $2 back and chances to win more on rest.

Same here, though it could get expensive playing the multplier every time.

Play 15 balls in one draw, the probability of winning MB is 100%.

Play 1 ball for 15 draws, the probability of winning MB is only 64%.

if you play the b.ball along with the mega.p thats $60 without is 30 if your number comes up you still on the lost side

I wish I could say the same.

She right the state lotto better odds.not great odds but better.....i wonder have any one ever hit a jackpot on here before?

You may be guaranteed to win $2, but statistically it guarantees that you'll lose $28.

If you do that for every draw, over the course of a year you'll spend $3,120 for 1560 chances at winning something. Based on the odds, here's what you can expect to win:

  Match        average prize     total 
74   0+1       $  3.46           $256.53
28   1+1       $  6.93           $194.13
3.3  3+0       $17.33           $  57.20
2     2+1       $17.33           $  34.66

That means you can expect to win a total of $542.52.

There's a 1 in 7 chance for a 3+1 match that would pay between $50 and $250, and 1 in 35 chance of matching 4+0 to win between $500 and $2500. Chances for the bigger prizes are small enough to be mostly meaningless, so even if the 4+0 match guaranteed $2500 what you get for $3,120 is a 1 in 35 chance of turning a profit of $42.52 and a 97% chance of losing at least $2350.

Woo hoo!

I'll buy that for a dollar.

Thanks for sharing but I'm too cheap to spend the extra money for a stamp so when its jackpot gets high enough I'll just buy two $1 tickets instead. 

 roflmao

Good luck to the people participating in this new matrix. It will be part of my current event this week.

I think there is merit to playing 30 lines, but not in the manner suggested by the OP.

Instead of playing the Megaplier with 15 lines, I would play 30 lines without the Megaplier.  That will win the same guaranteed $2 every draw, but provide enough lines (30) for a decent wheel.

Which brings me to the next point:  quick-picking the 5 white balls is a pretty poor plan.  Create a 30-line wheel that has some kind of guarantee, so that if your group of numbers hits, you're guaranteed to have a decent winner.

There is not enough history with a 75-number pool to do any kind of analysis, so just use your favorite numbers in the wheel. 

The nice thing about a 15-number Mega Ball pool is that you can ramp things up in quantities of 15, while playing every Mega Ball number in each new chunk of 15 you add to your wheel.

I personally have played Mega Millions like this many times, and I have had some nice hits, including a 4+0 and some 3+1's.  My 4+0 was one digit away from a 5+0.  (It has been a while, but I think it was like I had a 46 on the 4+0 line and the 5th number was a 47.)

They wouldn't try something sneaky like put two (or more) Megaballs with each numeral in the machine, would they?  Would that tilt the odds in any drastic fashion?

I have been playing six set numbers for years, dating to before I heard of MegaMillions.  I had been rotating one of the numbers into the Megaball position on a calendar-month basis.  This new limit of 15 has effectively limited my ability to do that to only one of the six numbers.  I just bought my first ticket for this 75/15 matrix with a quick pick in the Megaball position.  Here's hoping....

There was a rumor that Texas did something like that with the PB multiplier to get higher numbers when they were in charge of it, but then there were rumors that Texas paid out larger jackpot amounts than they should to attract more players in some of their other games too.  Players like to hear those types of rumors.

Even though the second prize is $1 million, CA winners won't get $1 million , correct? It will be based pari-mutuel for that draw?

Yep, the new MM will be pari-mutuel like all CA games.

Tomorrow's draw 2nd prize would be around $400,000.

hmmm ..thats just bad..

MM sure knows what they're doing. They are banking on everyone to figure out ' hey I can spend$15 each draw and cover all 15 numbers and win SOMETHING'

But with those 75 numbers in the white ball field it is astronomical almost to win.

Also isn't 1:258 million odds astronomical too? I'm not seeing how that equates to 1:129 mill.

If you buy two pints of milk will you still get 1/4 gallon?

Under the revamped game, the prizes and odds for matching numbers will be as follows.

• Match 1 number + the Mega Ball: $2 (odds are 1 in 56)
• Match only the Mega Ball: $1 (odds are 1 in 21)

This is the part in the article where I noticed immediately the "NEW"  odds of winning various prizes that are listed are incorrect. How can the Odds of matching ONLY  the mega Ball be 1 in 21, if there are only 15 Mega Balls to choose from?? That would be impossbile. Obviously if I play one game and pick one mega Ball out of the 15 that are avaiable to choose from, my odds of correctly matching "ONLY THE MEGA BALL" ARE 1 in 15.

Now how can matching 1 white ball number from a field of 1 thru 75, PLUS matching a mega ball correctly  from a field of 1 thru 15 in the same event be only1 in 56? Since there are 75 white ball numbers to choose from, your odds will have to automatically be GREATER then 75  because you have to match the mega ball in addition to matching one of the 75 white balls numbers that are available to choose from. Your odds of winning that $2 is WAY TOUGHER than you may think.

I haven't done any further research on the other new odds that are listed for the other prize levels  but I assume some of the others listed may be incorrect as well, INCLUDING the odds of winning a jackpot prize which may be higher than the stated 1 in 258,890,850. 

I have not gotten a chance to look at the new playslips yet as I have forgotten to check but if there is anyone that mentioned they have the new playslips, please let us know what odds of winning various prizes are listed in the  new playslips. THanks!

I am too having trouble  trying to figure out how 1:258 million equates to 1:129 million myself. Thought I was going crazy for a second lol.

The answer can't be "IF you play two games" because if you play two games then your odds would

2: 258 million . The Answer also cannot be " add megaplier" because adding the megaplier for an extra dollar for each game does not effect the "ODDS' of winning in ANY way... it only increases the payouts (Excluding the jackpot prize).

"LottoMetro" please  explain your answer because I am a bit confused. I will quote you on this you stated >

"Mega Millions cost $1, Powerball costs $2. Odds of Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175,223,510. So to compare by cost, Mega Millions is still better because you can buy 2 tickets for the price of one Powerball. That gives you odds of 2 in 258,890,850 or simplified as 1 in 129,445,425. "

  ^ I am sorry but buying two tickets DOES NOT cut your odds of winning the Jackpot in half to 129,445,425 (that would be great IF IT DID though) . It only gives you  the same exact odds you mentioned 2 out of 258,890,850 compared  to 1 out of 285,890,850 which is really not much off what I would consider a "Significant Odds deduction"

"This is the part in the article where I noticed immediately the "NEW"  odds of winning various prizes that are listed are incorrect. How can the Odds of matching  ONLY   the mega Ball be 1 in 21, if there are only15 Mega Balls to choose from?? That would be impossbile. Obviously if I play one game and pick one mega Ball out of the 15 that are avaiable to choose from, my odds of correctly matching "ONLY THE MEGA BALL"  ARE 1 in 15."

Figures don't lie but lairs figure as the saying goes.  The overall odds of winning something are 1 in 14.7

Out of 258,890,850 possible combinations 4,584,475 are 1+1 and 12,103,014 are 0+1, do the figuring again.

258,590,850÷4,584,475=56.4712  and 258,590,850÷12,103,014=21.3906

Did anyone notice in all the hoopla of the changes to the Megamillions game the reduced winning percentage of the jackpot paid out? At one time it was 65%. Now it is only 55%. Powerball for years paid out less than Megamillions, but with the new Megamillions rules Powerball now pays a larger percentage to the jackpot winner.

There, all 75 and 15 covered in 15 lines.

02 10 15 27 28 - 10
42 47 49 52 64 - 07
09 18 21 34 44 - 09
43 45 60 63 69 - 11
04 08 11 32 70 - 02
05 06 38 41 72 - 15
14 16 23 31 66 - 13
07 13 39 54 68 - 06
26 29 30 56 75 - 01
12 20 36 40 61 - 08
03 37 48 50 65 - 12
33 46 55 58 73 - 14
17 19 57 59 67 - 03
01 24 25 62 71 - 05
22 35 51 53 74 - 04

The annuity payout is spread out over 30 years instead of 26 which is why the cash value has gone down on MM. The annuity payments are a bit more heavily back end loaded than PB.

This is a very old and misunderstood argument.

Odds are added with multiple tickets; thus, 1:258,890,850 times 2 equals 1:129,445,425. Note that this only applies to tickets in the same drawing.

Let me give an example of a smaller set of combinations:

A lottery draws 1 number from 1,2,3,4,5,6. Your chances of winning are therefore 1 in 6 or 1/6 = ~0.1667

If you buy 2 tickets, you are buying 2 numbers. Your chances of winning are then 2 in 6 or 1/3 = ~0.3333

~0.1667 * 2 = ~0.3333

It is counter-intuitive because it doesn't make sense that buying 2 tickets doubles your chances, but that's the truth. The odds are so astronomical to begin with that this does not make a signficant difference on your ability to win. You would have to buy 25 MILLION tickets just to have a 10% chance of winning.

If you can't understand that then please, be my guest and ask the lottery.....they will give you the same answer.

Both views are right, but the confusion comes in the proper terminology: Odds versus Probability

Buying 1 MM ticket has probability of 1 in 258,890,850 and 2 tickets is 2 chances so yes, equivalent to 1 in 129,445,425.

But similarly, 1 MM ticket has odds of 1:258,890,849 and 2 tickets is 2:258,890,848 so apparently not much of an improvement when looked at this way.

I wrote about this before but basic summary is below:

Probability is:  ( chances for ) / ( total chances )

Odds is: ( chances for   ) : ( chances against )

Two different ways of expressing the same situation, and can be converted to one another.

Probability is x in y or x/y

Odds is x to y or x:y

The main problem is with the lottery industry, pretty much everything is expressed in probabilities, but they call it odds.(so do I, its easier to type) So when people are talking about odds in relation to the lottery, it can be confusing sometimes. Be clear to avoid confusion.

OK...

• Match 4 numbers + the Mega Ball: $5,000 (odds are 1 in 739,688)
• Match 4 numbers: $500 (odds are 1 in 52,835)
• Match 3 numbers + the Mega Ball: $50 (odds are 1 in 10,720)

Lower prize winners still getting robbed. If I wanted $5,000, I'd play the 4-ball. Much easier to win. If I wanted $500, I'd play the 3-ball. Much easier to win.

One caveat about buying 2 tickets vs 1: The preceding arguments don't apply if both tickets contain the same numbers.

Yep, you got it. The middle prizes are always skew(er)ed with more percentage of sales going to top and bottom prizes. This is typical with almost all lotto style games: rob from the middle class prizes, give to the top and bottom. Rob Peter to pay Paul, no way around it.

The new MM is even more extreme than the previous one. Just look at the percentages of the tiers:

Bottom line: you don't play MM/PB to gamble and make money, and you don't play for the 2nd-9th prizes. They're all a rip-off (especially in the middle) with only 18% total payout and typically much less. You play just for a chance at a dream Top Prize. Any other prize you get is just a consolation prize.

Good point, payout is NOT worth playing the game.  And Powerball is too expensive per game......

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My head, My Head!!!!!!!!! It hurts... There is smoke coming out of my ears!!!

Prior to the matrix change, 96% of all prizes was $7 or under. This game as well as PB has and always will be a suckers bet. Some put too much emphasis that "their" time will come. Chances are someone here on LP will win a 2nd tier prize during their lifetime but the odds of anyone here winning either PB or the MM jackpot is extremely unlikely. I hope I'm wrong but the odds are against all of us.

With all the state lotteries with better odds of being won and having jackpots that many times exceed $50M, there's no reason for anyone, even LP members to give up their dream of winning a lottery jackpot someday.

I have successfully matched the golden number of 14 in the new matrix. Maybe that signifies a good omen in this new matrix for me!!!