We might buy 1 line if it reaches 1 Billion Dollars.

should be a most curious Saturday night

ROCK'N ROLL! HERE WE GO!

I hope it's birthday numbers that get drawn and a sizable crowd walks away very happy. On that thought I'll get me another ticket with low numbers

I'm so dizzy- my head is spinning..

I like to point out something this jackpot shows very clearly about the jackpot anniuty option.
#5 $258.2 million cash, Aug. 7, 2013 ($448.4 million annuity) -
#6 $256.8 million cash, Feb. 7, 2015 ($380 million annuity)

It's within 2 million dollars of #5 jackpot 258.2 million cash jackpot , Yet the annuity is 380m current vs 448m in 2013, only 2 years ago!

This is power of 30 year interest rates have on all lottery jackpots! 60+ million dollars less today, thanks to interest rates!

The Lottery buys special Treasury securities that are very much linked to 30 year rate for normal t-bills, as 30 year notes go down, so does annuity securities lottery buys on your behalf.

At the moment our 30-Year treasury bond is one of the worst possible investments in the entire world.

Sense your also dealing with the Inflation over decades. It will eat your low 2% yield alive, significant losses of purchasing power over time.

however don't take my word for it, if any of you do win(good luck), go to largest investment firms like:

Goldman Sachs.
Morgan Stanley.
JPMorgan Chase.
Merrill Lynch.
They ALL tell you they can all earn way more then treasury yield , take the cash!

Even with there high management fees ( I would not use them firms my self, but they manage billions and i don't so there there people to ask over some guy on web)

didn't a couple of those investment firms get hacked this year or the previous year ??

Hopefully it rolls a couple more times otherwise let there be one jackpot winner

Well now - it probably was my purchasing a 2nd ticket that pushed the annuity up 20M$.  ...  and you are all welcome!

$380 million sounds good to me 

This could trigger a buying frenzy.  I'll have to watch the news to see if players start standing in lines to buy a few extra tickets.

Keep Rolling $480,000,000.00 sounds really good........

I'm mostly interested in having ten or more people, win the 2nd prize every draw. We have to be getting some of that money back from the lottery, one way or another. The jackpot can roll, ad infinitum for all I care.

someones going to win saturday(:

The annuity value jumped up $20 million yet the cash value only went up $6.3 million. No matter what I'll take it. Now if someone from the forum can be so lucky this Saturday! Sweet dreams everyone and don't forget to buy your ticket....I will be getting mine tomorrow??

I hope so! Good luck to you Hearsetrax!

If you do win this one make sure to take the cash option and don't go handing out the winnings to every person you meet on your street. You can easily beat the annuity rate by investing the money yourself.

I'm in for one row this weekend.

Powerball!

I agree! cash is king.

That just shows you how much is needed to break even when the jackpot resets to $40M, $12.6M cash should cover it.

Oh yes, Jackpot fever has returned!!

I'm getting it!!!!

Why not invest in Lehmann Brothers?

Oh...yeah...

The US Treasury had to bail out Merrill Lynch, among other amazing firms.

$380 million Woo Hoo!!

well...let's seeeeeeee....takin' the cash and running fast.... so that is 256 minus 40% for Uncle Sam...leaves me roughly 153 Million and change(no state income tax here).. Have a new home(s), cars, toys,gifts to various family members, donations to non profits,buy the track(sp?) chairs for as many disabled vets as I could,should leave me with 50-60 Mil. ...spend 500K a year over the remainder of my estimated  existence....should leave the offspring with 30-40 Million ....Wouldn't have to invest a dime !!!....Course, I would always invest...maybe with Edward Jones...They handle a friend's family estate that's worth 50+million and they are very happy with their results.......Just a nice thought for tonight's drawing....

Sure. Why not? You can be part of the too-big-to-fail club. 

Sounds like a plan! I've got one similar. :)

I'm headed out on a country drive to spend the day with parents, and planning on stopping at several small town gas & goes to pick up one ticket each.

Got my ticket for tonight's game. Not hoping for a roll over but for multiple winners.

I hope the winners will be given the right to anonymity. It would be very dangerous for winners of such a large amount to be identified.

just quit playing altogether if your that worried

. We read the same rant and rhetoric every time the jackpot grows this large. Interestingly enough, these are some of the same posters who have so much commentary when the winner is identified. They get all excited about what the winner will or will not do. So, take that away and I suspect LP will birth more home-grown conspiracy theorists. The ones who plan to win and take sensible steps in managing their win-fall rarely end up dead. Focus on winning the darn thing. That's hard enough if not impossible. Whinging about taxes and media frenzy is something out of our control. Again, it is the media that helps these jackpots grow so large. Give them a one word interview in your spider man mask if you ever hit it big.

People say; lottery is a foolish dream, but hey it might happen!

"Whinging about taxes and media frenzy is something out of our control."

How is it out of our control? Other countries allow winners to collect their prize anonymously and other countries don't collect tax on lottery winnings, so why not here in the US? If enough people care about being anonymous and not having to pay tax on the lottery we might be able to change things.

Good luck to all!

IDK  if they take city tax to but never mind that at take home after all taxes take home for me between $139,904,640(39.6+5.92) or $134,126,640(39.6+5.92+2.25).

That is enough for me to buy my 3.5mill ohio home, 2.5mill florida home, 1.8 prevost rv, my 3 lamborghini, my 2 rolls royce, couple of escalades, a few bentley , a maybach 62s , and if i had that much def a bugatti super sport, then of course a home for mom and sis and whatever car they want, a few good hand outs for friends and family( your a fool if u think your money back just give to people and tell them to enjoy and you dont want it back(less headace and pressure)). and that would be 24 mill to myself( extra would be food and travel money) 5-6 mill for family and friends. And a few million in bank for son. so with that i STILL have over 90 million to still play with and i have all my toys cars and homes paid for in cash. 

And anyone on here talking bout they would change or anthing like that ur lying to yourself. dream big and have fun and think they took $116,895,360 to $122,673,360. i say spend what u have fun and take cash option*

one winner one winner one winner (even if its not me)

Let me know how that works out for ya. 

While you recruit posters for the march to Washington, I will be tweaking my system.

Fair enough. Far be it from me to mess with a tweaker. 

And if im not mistaking but 50% of money goes to jackpot and the other 50% goes to education, funding lottery and of course taxes. my question is why they dont just put a sales tax on the ticket when you buy it. so here in ohio. it will be 7% so ticket would be $2.14 to purchase. and when you win any amount you wont have to be taxed because you already paid tax ;) i no wishful thinking hahahahah

I got my tickets if someone over here wins and next year we have the same tax rate the person will take home around 169 millions. You can buy a lot of pina coladas with that.

The ODDS make people say it's foolish, but win the thing?  And, suddenly some 'fool' becomes pretty smart (or lucky in the eyes of those who say it's a dream).  This much money better make you smarter, because everyone will want part of your dream.  One thing is certain - without a ticket?  You have NO chance, and no matter what the odds are, if you have a ticket, you have A chance.  Forget the odds and it comes down to "ticket vs. no ticket".  And, it will happen.

 Good one!

Wow, this is definitely a surprise. I was originally only expecting $425-$450 million (the most) for Valentine's Day but it looks like it will be that much for the pre-Valentine's drawing if no winner tonight. That would be $304.1 million cash to start 

My wife tells me I'm wasting our money on buying lottery ticket, all the time. I say when I win, you be changing that tune!

"One thing is certain - without a ticket?  You have NO chance, and no matter what the odds are"

Not everyone believe that, people loitering at lottery retailer stores telling players to "remember me if you win" and others reminding relatives and co-workers to get a ticket and "remember me if you win", believe if someone they know wins they will too.

When athletes win the championship, the only thing cheerleaders get is ^%T*# 

It will most certainly hit half a billion dollars if there's no winner tonight.

I can't wait for the day to say, "One...BILLION...dollars." 

Well if it was to ever roll to a billion n kept current rate of annuity vs cash  of 67.58% cash value would $675,800,000 me likey a lot

I seriously doubt it'd ever hit the billion dollar mark ...........

but time will spin a most curious thread if it did

Just curious, how many tickets does everybody have?

Normally I just play my usual numbers I have for years but when it gets up there I tend to buy three.    That said I have my normal numbers, another set I have from a fortune cookie I use when the pot gets big and the third a quick pick from the automatic machine at my local grocery store.   

I hope it's my day.

Could you imagine the frenzy with a billion dollar jackpot (annuity)? Lines would be a mile wrapped around every lottery retailer! LP would go into overdrive. We will have to take up a collection to send Todd and his team oxygen and Starbucks gift certificates.

What would it take, about three more rollovers to hit a billion?   I assume it's going to get tonight now that it's a "public" jackpot with people buying tickets because they saw it on the news and whatnot.

I think it's going to roll over but that might be my wishful thinking. Where are the mathematicians? Has anyone done the calculations on the chances of a roll over?

We will have to take up a collection to send Todd and his team oxygen and Starbucks gift certificates.

The latest estimate gives a 72.9% chance of rollover for this specific drawing, whereas we are also entering the 90% cumulative percentile. I'm actually surprised the jackpot got a boost because normally it doesn't jump until it gets in record territory. Guess everyone has been impatient for big jackpots 

I won't be participating tonight, but if it rolls without a winner I may buy a ticket for the next draw.

 Thanks for the stats. Roll baby roll. 

I would choose to "Invest" in, 'Long-Term Capital Management'. Laugh/cry out loud!

There is no such thing as a foolish dream. It is foolish not to have a dream.

Enough Rolling already. Do you realise how disconcerted people become if it rolls into uncharted territory and they are NOT the winner/winners? Who in their right mind needs a billion Dollars to live off? A certain % of those who do win big end up losing a large portion of their jackpot if not all of it.

l would prefer this jackpot to be won by a Few people instead of One..Screw Rolling, why? .. because l am ready, you ought to be as well.

If it does make it to Valentines Day my guess from a couple weeks back of 500ish will be substantially short. Just under 2 years ago it jumped from 350 to 590 for the final roll. Current interest rates would make for a smaller jump with the same sales, and the frenzy may not be as big as it used to be, but I expect that rolling to Valentines Day would almost certainly set new records for both cash and advertised value. That would buy a lot of flowers and chocolate.

"Who in their right mind needs a billion Dollars to live off?"

Nobody needs that much, whether they're in their right mind or not. I promise I could do useful things with it, though. Of course it wouldn't really be a billion dollars. Living in NY, an advertised jackpot of an even billion would only put about $350 million in my pocket if I was an only winner. If it does rolls that high 2 winners may be the most likely result.

Disconcerted? Maybe my English not so good, but I predict the lines will be longer at more places the bigger it grows. I no sure what disconcerted means but if it means same as frenzy and excitement then I agree. Uncharted? Doest that mean no space on billboard to hold all the 0s? That would be, how do you say in English? FRICKIN AWESOME. I be happy when it go over the $500 million markers. I won't win. So at least I can enjoy the entertainment of it all. I would be glad to read about an insanely high jackpot than the Brian Williams lynching.

Disconcerted means: Agitated, Upset.

l am sticking to my guns on the PB tonight. Screw Rolling.

* The entertainment of it all is when- it is won. That is the premise of the jackpot..Winning!!!!

I hope that I have the only winning ticket

I will claim it as soon as possible

I will NOT use a financial manager as they are in it for themselves

I will consult a tax attorney and find a Conservative CPA

I love road trips. It wasn't the last leg of the journey that excited me but the stops along the way and definitely the views. When it's won, LP goes into quiet mode. Very few people log in or post as the hype is over. Reality settles in that this game is insanely hard to win. Right now we don't see the odds. We see the prize. The bigger the prize the bigger our dreams. I guess you like your bad news upfront and early. That's fine. Look at it this way. You will lose tonight. I promise. So don't worry that it rolled over. Just get excited that your numbers didn't come up. It doesn't matter how large or small the Jackpot. So don't let the size of the JP distract or torment you.

"Who in their right mind needs a billion Dollars to live off?"

If I'm hearing you right, what you're saying is no one needs a billion dollars to live off of, there for there should never be a billion dollar jackpot.

If we are going to accept this premise, that what we need to live off should equal the size of the jackpot, then someone could make the argument the jackpot should never be any bigger than 20 million. After all, who needs anything over 20 million to live off? And yet, here we are playing for a $380 million jackpot and I don't hear anyone complaining it's too large.

With capitalism, people are free to vote with their wallets and it's obvious more people are willing to fork over their hard earned money for the chance to win huge jackpots.

We had Monopoly Millionaires Club last year offered in numerous states, a game that capped the jackpot at $25 million and promised to share the wealth with sizable secondary prizes and most lottery players crapped all over it and said thanks..... but no thanks!

l love my road trips as well- but there comes a time when you need to arrive at your destination. One can only take in so much scenery of any road trip. l am of the opinion that this jackpot needs to be won, that is my opinion and l am entitled to it. My opinion is also that l would like to see more than One winner of any jackpot that goes over $300 mil. You entitled to disagree with me all you want, after all- this is a discussion Forum.

** BTW- l have said this before and will repeat myself:- l have YET to read of any jackpot winner lamenting having won any jackpot by saying  " l was praying that l would not win tonight's $300 mil jackpot, l was hoping that it would go into the $400 mil range and THEN bag it.... l am very upset!"

Try arguing with that..

I am in  no way attempting to stifle your opinion. I enjoy a healthy dialogue. We are a few hours away from the big drawing. Let's see what happens. If I win tonight, you will hear it for the first time - lol. At least I will be able to buy a lifetime supply of Xanax

Exactly.. so you agree with the method to my madness?

I love single winners. That's just me. But by no means will I show any sign of ungratefulness to Lady Luck if I have to share or win such a small jackpot - lol.

After I collect my $183,868,800 after taxes, I'll be buying one of these.

That's ok- but given the fact that there are people who have been playing for years if not decades without winning the Top prize or even 2nd / 3rd prize for that matter, it would be great to share the wealth. You read of single winners who have made bad decisions with their fortune and almost invariably the response is " had that been me.".. well yeah, had you been part of that winning jackpot things might have been different.

l * think that people who are begging for the jackpot to roll- are not playing as of yet, they want it to get up into a certain range before they start contributing. Us poor suckers are urged to throw in our Dollars and build up the jackpot. l don't know of any player who says " l am betting $20.00 on tonight's jackpot, but l am hoping l do not win".. 

Do you know of anyone?

A New Hyundai...cool. * That's the sign on the Upper Right.

Welp, I just pushed sales a lil bit higher :-) picked a group of #'s 3 even 2 odd... Using my LP skills I learned from you guys, let's do this !!!

The sign on the left.....Lamborghini.

It's a Lamborghini.

lol...l know, it was playful banter on my part. l made out the logo on the hood before l posted my remark. l was expecting to get a response of " l will not be buying a Hyundai after winning millions"..

Why would you buy that when this exists?

Because Red is for alpha males and Blue is for beta males.

And I was going to say if that is a hundai I was buying lol. 

In my advancing age, I go for comfort not speed.  Give me a Mercedes Benz.

I thought red was for hot heads and blue was for cool customers? Anyway, my choice would be gunmetal or white. My first car was red and was a bit too colorful for me. My current truck is a nice white. Or brown, depending on what the weather is like.

Hell guru, after taxes your looking at insane amount of money,  39.6% max rate atm,  i round it up to 40% with lawyer fees and whatever that is, 154,080, 000 cash,  omfg! fancy cars is low balling it folks, This jackpot calls for something much more.

like upgrading to like an 1/8 fraction ownership share  of something like netjet fleet of aircrafts( 650+ aircraft in the north american fleet alone rofl)

Never ever having to spend hours at airport again and big plus like never dealing with NSA anymore, your car pulls right up to aircraft, pilots put your stuff in,plus they had whatever food you liked waiting inside they got deliver before picking you up.

Within a min your in the air, plus you have a car with a driver waiting for you at the aircraft doorsteps the sec you get off. Welcome to 100 million plus club, 0.01% of wealth in our population! Only the best will do for your class. Hell once you get to that kind of money,  it's kind of pointless,  100+ million, 0.01% member will be enjoying same things as in the population as the in billionaires club, they just upgrade the toys to show off a bit more, same life style 99% with people taking care of your ever need. 

That 25% Federal Tax is not the full tax rate.

You would owe about 14% more!

To be honest?  I cannot comprehend having this much money.  If I were to fly I would maybe charter a flight, still would not own one, seems like a waste of money to pay the maintenance etc.  I do very much like the idea of pulling up to the plane though......guess like you said .... Set your sights higher, lol.  For me, that is winning hahaha.

The car or the girl? 

Wow, jackpot up to $394.5 million for tonight!

Thanks to you and other media outlets for highlighting the cash value being one of the largest. The casual player often focuses on the annuity value and wouldn't have responded like this if that wasn't clarified.

TWO OF BOTH!

Good now it can be #5 world  cash record if won.

161,026,400 after 39.6% full tax rate, insane if only 1 winner/married couple wins it tonight.

I give it like coin toss chance of rolling, 50/50 with these sales.

Hell it could even beat cash value of #4 record if it rolls.

Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($648 million annuity) 

Yet it's annuity will be hell of lot less then 648m annuity  MM offered in late 2013.....  all thanks to 30 year us govt bond yields being in low 2% range.

This is me atm waiting on the jackpot results.

The last thing I'd do is own/fly private. I already don't like the idea of flying, but knowing that it's typically the smaller planes that crash, no thanks.

How long does it take to post a winner or a rollover usually?

While I've said I might want to take (more) flying lessons and perhaps even get my license, I think I would probably re-think that if I won a huge sum of money.  Planes are really expensive to buy and esp. to maintain and what you say is true, most crashes are smaller planes.  The V-tail Beechcraft Bonanza got the nickname of "The Doctor Killer", not because it was particularly unsafe to fly, just that it was a high performance single engine unique looking plane and many doctors who got their pilot's license bought one and were later killed in crashes...mainly because their ability didn't match up w/ the plane's performance.

I think I'd probably fly first class, though.

I was kinda close lol, I had 7 10 22 37 38 - 11

winner was 5-10-21-34-58-33

There's a pretty big difference between some amateur pilot flying a single-engine Cessna and chartering a NetJet.

Winner in Brooklyn according to Twitter...Jewish News Feed tweeted lol We'll see if it's real

Private jets are often cited as slightly more dangerous than commercial ones. As someone who doesn't like the idea of flying in the first place, that small difference is enough for me. Not just that, either, but non-commercial flights have looser regulations.

And yes, I know my fear of flying is irrational and driving is statistically more dangerous. I'd rather be in control of my car than the worlds best pilot in control of a jet I'm in.

I assume you heard of the doctor in Lubbock that crashed into the KCBD tower and died just this past Wednesday? News report says he was in a Piper Malibu.

No, I hadn't heard that.  I don't have cable and don't really keep up with the news very much, other than headlines on Bing, Yahoo and sometimes Drudge.  I used to go to the Amarillo Globe-News website to get regional news, but they started charging for a subscription.  Even the local paper only allows five views/month w/out a subscription.

My pop used to have his license and a 1/3 share in a plane before it got so expensive.  I remember when he sold his share, the guy paid him in cash and one of the bills was a $500 bill.  His share came to a little over that, but I remember that bill.  Of course, that was in the early 60's when those bills were still in circulation.    I remember thinking we were rich, but I'm sure the money was (well) spent before too long...I'm sure my folks needed the money, what with three hungry mouths to feed besides their own and that five hundred was prob. a month's wages for my pop.    We used to fly on Sunday mornings, go to places like Liberal, KS and have breakfast and fly back.  While she didn't have her license, momma was a good pilot, too.   I love to fly.

Flying is one of those things I think I could do if I absolutely had to. Possibly with the help of an airport bar. It's not really so much the crashing, just not being in control. I even get anxious any time I'm sitting passenger in a car.

I'm guessing it wasn't hit because it's taking so long and that tweet source doesn't really seem that legit. No mainstream news or State lotteries are announcing anything.

I havent heard anything from anyone I know as to whether or not we have a winner... I'm so tired... but I want to know...  :)

I just woke up and am surprised to see that results are still pending. Don't remember a time it has ever taken this long

I think I remember it taking a while one of the times before when the jackpot was really large. I seem to recall there being a winner. Though I could be mistaken, all I really know is I got one number right.

Not being posted just means they don't have all the details yet. If just one state reports a winner then they know the next jackpot is $40 million and they could post it, but the normal policy may be to wait until they know for sure if there are multiple winners. OTOH, I really don't see them taking this long to reset the jackpot if they know there's a winner. If just a single state has a glitch and can't be positive they didn't sell a winner then nobody knows if there was a winner or not, and they can't post the next jackpot or a number of winners.

There's obviously been some kind of glitch somewhere. If it is a state being unable to report that might mean a much better chance of a rollover, because even if that state is one of the big ones there's still a much smaller number of tickets that might match the winning combination, or it might just mean they don't release any info until they're positive about all of the info.

If I recall correctly typically individual states have announced prior to Powerball announcing when said state has sold a winning ticket especially when a large jackpot is up for grabs. For example California or New York might not wait for the national announcement to declare that a winning ticket has been sold. The official amount of the win would not be announced pending results from other states. That's my memory although I may be wrong.

Most likely one state is having a glitch thus delaying the announcement of a rollover. That's my feeling and opinion at least, make of that what you will.

Well I won $4, so I'm happy. That's the first time I've won anything in a long while.

Here's hoping it rolls. Since everyone now has lotto fever and all news stations are playing it up, it's time to start buying my tickets in SC. Need to try for as much anonymity as possible.

Gotta be a lottery official from some state fell asleep and forgot to call in and say no winners

https://www.usamega.com/

It said no one won. On that website.  $394.5 Millions for next jackpot.

It won't be a surprise if this delay becomes a catalyst for mass hysteria.

If someone wins at this point, the lottery is rigged

One more time.

One more time. It does not say that. It says that is the jackpot amount for 2-7-15 duh

Thanks for the info. I just see that. I through no one won. It's been what 5 hrs after drawing and still no one know who won.

all I  know is it was not my one ticket that I bought, lol

What taking so long. You think by now we will know who won.

https://www.usamega.com/

Now it said the jackpot at 450 Millions for next drawing,

Eight different states had players match 5+0. Not bad. Jackpot is at least $228,000,000 cash, wonder how much more it will be by Wednesday.

450 Millions for next week drawing. I can't wait to see Mega Millions get that high.

Interesting, it looks as if the Jackpot will move up to 5th place overall from 10th that it was currently in.  But the cash amount will only move up one spot from 6th place to 5th place.  So both the cash and the annuity have come together in the 5th spot.