Lottery Post quoted in Powerball "what if" articlePrevious TopicNext Topic

I thought I'd pass along a link to a newspaper blog post, not only because of the interesting subject matter, but also because the author referenced some comments by yours truly.

http://blogs.trb.com/entertainment/news/gambling/blog/2009/05/powerball_how_the_odds_are_in.html

When the jackpot gets large, these kinds of topics come up, and always make for interesting debate.

So it’s maybe an interesting exercise to think about, but really not possible in reality," says Todd Northrop, owner of Lottery Post, an online community of lottery enthusiasts, in response to my idea. A group in Virginia tried it a few years ago in their in-state game, but ran out of time. And that required only 10 million numbers to buy, he said. Still, they covered 80 percent of the numbers, and hit the big one, he said.

WTG, TODD IT WOULD BE SO SWEET IF ONE OF YOUR MEMBERS WIN

Awesome!!!!!!!     

Don't care what that guy says i'm still buying my usual $20 in tix!!!

Awesome article, Todd, thanks for sharing!

I agree!  We've had members who won big prizes, including the second prize in Powerball, but still waiting for the big prize.  I think the best thing will be seeing the winner wearing a LP hat and/or t-shirt at the press conference.  You can bet that's what I'll do.

Good points in that article.

While the wealthy could very well try the strategy of buying every single combination they can have several obstacles:

*Sharing with another jackpot winner who picked the same numbers.  How painful would it be to share a jackpot with some random person who simply only spent $1 while you spent $195 million for that winning ticket.

*The time constraints of actually buying 195 million tickets.   Given there are only 86,400 seconds in a 24-hr day.  It would be quite a task of getting 195 million tickets printed.  You would need a team...a large team....who are willing to stay at various stores for 24-hrs straight buying tickets. 

*The aftermath.   Paperwork with the IRS and actually looking at all 195 million tickets to find the one with the right combination to claim.   Forget aout the logistics of where one could store 195 million tickets.  That's alot of paper!  If someone else in Powerball world actually won too......then you are also dealing with a net loss.   A 222 million jackpt that is split means only 111 million to each ticket holder.   Since one person spent 195 million.....that is a 84 million loss.

*Also jackpots are based on annunities.   So it is based over a 30-yr span to see the bottomline rewards perhaps.  Too much work and too much effort and too much money spent on a game of chance.

"Keeping this train going further: You can eventually deduct all your losing tickets (the $194,999,999), meaning you'd be taxed on only the $27 million profit you'd make. But it would probably means some time with the IRS, a lot of time."

Not all of the 194,999,999 will be losers. In fact I've done the math. This doesn't include tax or powerplay variables. This also doesn't take in account the VERY large increase in the final jackpot because of the large number of tickets sold for this drawing. (Example: Last Jackpot was actually $6 million higher than advertised with $48 million tickets sold. If you take the same amount sold in the last drawing (underestimated since it rolled to $222 million and with that comes even higher sales) there would be a grand total of ~ 243,000,000 tickets sold) These raw numbers also assume the player takes the annuity payments rather than cash option.

Grand total won... $255,174,421 (If no other tickets match)
However, the prizes under $600 are not taxed so $23,797,821 would be tax free. Again, this is underestimated because of ticket sales but you get the basic idea. Just some food for thought I suppose. (It also proves I have NO life and I'm in serious need of a girl friend)

Excellent article Todd - Thank You for sharing, however, the commentsmade after the blog were quite negative... I sometimes wonder how thesefolk walk around all day - apparently they need to spend a little timeat the LotteryPost to become a lil more upbeat. Anywho, thanks & let us know of any increased web traffic... Pogo

HiYa Todd,

When I win the Big One on the Powerball - Will you send me a Tshirt and Hat?  Promise to wear it to pick up my check.  :-).

Yes, most definitely!  Of course, you can pick one up right now if you wish!

Nice article Todd - It's nice to be recognized for your hard work !!!!!

Hello Todd

This is a very good article. And oh yes todd I will want my lottery post items. I feel a win coming on.And I hope to win

                                                                                                                               lotto lynn

I already have my LP cap and golf-shirt, now all I need is a winning ticket.

Here in Canada you would receive all of the $254 million dollars tax free but we don't have enough people to ever have a lottery that size.  Regardless, lotteries here are tax free-nice eh!

I hear you -- my LP hat and shirts are getting pretty worn while I'm searching for my big winner!