Tickets for updated Mega Millions game on sale Saturday

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!!!