Except for the 14 million dollar difference in the cash value, MM and PB are almost equivalent.

Reply #4

JWBlue — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:06:17 GMT

Why haven't the jackpost been going up more? It seems the increases are about the same as they were before they both gained states.

Reply #3

Prob988 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:50:39 GMT

Well, it seems very obvious to me, even if you buy bonds - which is what the lottery does, and which may prove useless at some point - that an investment that initially involves less than $50 million is not equivalent to one that is $60 million.

Reply #2

ryanm — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:27:09 GMT

I agree, Powerball's cash option really isn't worse than Mega Millions', because they both roll at about the same rate now ever since they began cross-selling. Before they began cross-selling, Mega Millions' cash jackpot rolls were quite larger than Powerball's, and Mega Millions' annuity jackpot rolls even outpaced Powerball's then.

Reply #1

Guru101 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:18:18 GMT

It's not false advertising. What a lot of people seem to realize is that the jackpot prize itself is an annuity. Meaning the prize itself is payed over some number of payments in some number of years. It's that annuity amount that is advertised.

Look at the advertised Powerball and Mega Millions amounts - annuities. Look at the advertised state lottos - annuities. Annuities are not something new. They've been around for a long time. So when someone plays a jackpot game, it's their responsibil... [ More ]

Except for the 14 million dollar difference in the cash value, MM and PB are almost equivalent.

Prob988 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:46:38 GMT

Annuity PB: $95M. Cash: $46.1M

Annuity MM: $99M Cash $60.6M

And the odds, of course, for PB, are much, much, much worse.

The annuity value of either is a case of false advertising but PB is worse than MM.