how often do you play powerball/mega millions in your state?

Reply #28

RJOh — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:15:09 GMT

When you think about it, both PowerBall and MegaMillions are local games in which the states combine 32% of their sales to offer a larger jackpot than most of them could afford by themselves. California, Texas and New York might be the exceptions since their state lotteries jackpots are some time bigger, but if odds of winning a lower tier prizes weren't as attractive there would be no reasons for the states to participate since most of the money would be leaving their states most of the time i... [ More ]

Reply #27

delS — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:02:50 GMT

Ditto

Reply #26

scorpio — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:47:08 GMT

i dabble in it every draw,as i'm retired and nothing else to do,except go to casinos once every 3 months,where i think you win more often.anyway it subsidizes any retirement income,when you win.

Reply #25

Coin Toss — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:19:15 GMT

guesser

But Rick, ANY type of gambling is a sucker bet, be it scratch-offs, pick3, pick4, pick5, casino games, Keno, lottery; when you get down to it.

The casino industry considers there are two entities that can be beat consistently, poker and sports betting. There was even a court case in California about whether poker was gambling or a game of skill. It was decide it was mor a game of skill than pure gambling because if a given number of people played for the same length of time, they... [ More ]

Reply #24

Prob988 — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:53:16 GMT

Rick:

When the jackpot is very large, both PB and MM can give something that gamblers seldom see, an expectation value higher than one. (The expectation value is the potential reward divided by the odds.)

For both games the expectation value for lower prizes is fixed (except in California) at slightly less than 0.2, so playing for small prizes is not wise, but to tell you the truth, when I play these games, I'm not fantasizing about winning $100.

At that point the MM or PB is the best... [ More ]

Reply #23

RJOh — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:50:22 GMT

I feel I can get the odds down to 1:1 mill

Is that for the jackpot or actually getting your dollars back? If that's for the jackpot what are you odds of getting the money spent back.

Reply #22

Raven62 — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:33:32 GMT

$12,000,000 would do me fine!

14AA41: One for All and All for One

AAAAA: American Association Against Acronym Abuse

AATK: Always At The Keyboard

AWGTHTGTTA: Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again

DBEYR: Don't Believe Everything You Read

IASAP4U: I Always Say A Prayer For You

Reply #21

guesser — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:22:55 GMT

But Rick, ANY type of gambling is a sucker bet, be it scratch-offs, pick3, pick4, pick5, casino games, Keno, lottery; when you get down to it.

Personally, I play PB, odds are 1:146 mill, I feel I can get the odds down to 1:1 mill, but even at that, those are unreal odds, it's still a sucker game, but I enjoy it, it's just a sport to me.

Reply #20

RJOh — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:18:56 GMT

Is that the Cash Option or Jackpot amount

Reply #19

hearsetrax — Tue, 29 May 2007 00:46:07 GMT

I only play when the megamillions breaks the $35 million mark

Reply #18

RJOh — Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:38 GMT

justxploring,

Your list covers a lot of them, but I've seen BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) and MLIF (Mother in Law I can't Forget) used a lot too.

Reply #17

Rick G — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:12:35 GMT

Reminds me of the commercial with the mom and her daughter talking about texting charges...you can pretty much carry on a conversation with these.

But WTFDIK

Reply #16

justxploring — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:06:10 GMT

RJOh and Rick,

I see what you 2 are saying. I guess it makes sense to look at the whole picture more than just the big jackpot prize. To be perfectly honest, right now I shouldn't even be playing Lotto, but I won't stop until I can't pay the rent!

There are so many games that, for me, it would be impossible to play all of them. So we each have our favorites I guess. After Friday night's $1.4M win (another Miami player) I am convinced it's all luck. The MegaMoney numbers were 2-3-4-1... [ More ]

Reply #15

justxploring — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:59:24 GMT

Lottolaughs - When I first got on boards, there were many acronyms that I couldn't figure out, so I began typing them in my Google box and there is usually an explanation.

Here are some common ones (don't remember from where I copied this before)

AFAIC As far as I'm concerned

AFAIK As Far As I Know

AFGO Another F***ing (or Fabulous) Growth Opportunity

AFK Away From Keyboard

AKA Also Known As

ASAP As Soon As Possible

BAK Back At Keyboard

BBL Be Back Later... [ More ]

Reply #14

Rick G — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:30:36 GMT

I agree...MegaMillions outsells IL 6/49 lotto by far.

Your response is exactly why I consider it a sucker game. It's appealing to people who want to win their buck back at 30/1 odds.

The average player doesn't pay any attention to odds-to-payout ratios and gleefully buys scratch-off tickets that offer a grand prize of $10,000 with odds of 2 million/1 of hitting it just because they have a 4/1 chance of getting a free ticket.

Reply #13

Todd — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:27:07 GMT

Reply #12

lottolaughs — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:45:47 GMT

Thanks,kitty! Appreciate it! I would have never guessed.

Reply #11

tnlotto1 — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:35:57 GMT

i voted every draw because i havent missed a tennessee powerball drawing since 2005...

Reply #10

RJOh — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:24:13 GMT

Actually your odds of a hit (but not winning the jackpot) would with be better with PB or MM

In Ohio we have MegaMillions with 175M possible combinations and Classic Lotto with 14M possible combinations so you would think Classic Lotto with better odds of winning the jackpot would be more popular but the overall odds of winning something ($2 or more) playing MM are 1:40 and 1:54 for Classic Lotto so MM attracts more players.

I suspect the same thing would happen in Florida if Florida Lotto... [ More ]

Reply #9

Coin Toss — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:07:56 GMT

We have a friend that just couldn't wait for California to become part of MM. If you remember there was a news headline:

Calif. to join MM - possible $500,000,000 jackpots

Well, we haven't seen$400,000,000 yet, and and now that same friend meows and moans every time a Californian hits the MM. Not to mention the exapnded matrix, top and bottom.

I play it but not all the time.

You must can't convince people that MM (and PB) are actually two lottos in one.

Reply #8

emilyg — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:39:30 GMT

In my humble opinion

Reply #7

lottolaughs — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:31:15 GMT

This doesn't have anything to do with the question but I'm always wondering what IMHO stands for. For the life of me I can't figure it out and when I hear the answer, I won't be able to believe what a dunce I was. Can anyone translate? Thanks

Reply #6

justxploring — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:14:06 GMT

We don't have PB or MM in this state, but I'm answering as if we did. I agree with Rick. If they ever added PB or MM, I doubt if I'd play it. If I haven't won the FL Lottery or the MegaMoney game with much better odds, why would I want to play a game in which I am less likely to hit

Reply #5

spy153 — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:06:36 GMT

Every draw Lottomike. I'm so addicted. But on some nights there's just not any spare money to play. Not so often, but it happens. And I hate to do this again, but the GAS prices are forcing me to budget everything I do these days. I hate the gas companies now. Plain and simple.

Reply #4

Surge — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:43:14 GMT

Never... and will never.

Reply #3

Rick G — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:38:27 GMT

Never. IMHO they are the worst lottery games offered by anyone.

Reply #2

lottolaughs — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:09:42 GMT

Not anymore. Played MM a few times but gave up. Too difficult.

Reply #1

stavros — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:42:02 GMT

Never. I have enough work everyday trying to nail down the P3.

how often do you play powerball/mega millions in your state?

LOTTOMIKE — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:39:31 GMT

how often do you play powerball/mega millions in your state