'Mirage' jackpots

Reply #16

nist7seven — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:24:25 GMT

Well that plus the reporters don't even bother to spend a few minutes to readup on how the advertised jackpot actually works compared to the cash option. I was researching how lotteries work and found that information in minutes. Journalism is down the drain these days.

Reply #15

Stack47 — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:12:28 GMT

But the huge jackpots like this week's $450 million prize are actually a mirage.

It's amazing that after years of several huge jackpots and ticket buying frenzies, a reporter still believes this is useful information. The story makes it look like only the huge jackpots are mirages and not very accurate about the cash value. I guess they still don't know 25% will be deducted for Federal tax and possibly state tax too.

Reply #14

bigbuckswede — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 20:56:16 GMT

I must correct you. Many countries including my country sweden have zero taxes, but some like Spain have 20% flat taxes. Euro millions is not offered in sweden but is multi-country lottery. A winner in spain recieves less cash than one in france.

Reply #13

dallascowboyfan — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:50:05 GMT

$485 million that is one mirage I would not mind I bet the writer of the article probably grab some tickets too

Reply #12

Ron5995 — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 18:43:24 GMT

And there's no penalty for lottery officials being wrong. For example, the widely advertised Powerball jackpot of $600 million annuity, back in 2013, turned out to less when actually won at ~$590 million annuity. Not a huge difference, relatively speaking, but a difference nevertheless. I'm surprised Powerball lottery officials didn't pay the advertised amount (would have only cost them an additional ~$6 million), since some players, and at least one mainstream news article, noticed the discrepa... [ More ]

Reply #11

PrinceRene — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:50:56 GMT

OMG.

Reply #10

Saylorgirl — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:49:51 GMT

The Mirage is getting bigger to the size of $485 million

Reply #9

maringoman — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:15:17 GMT

I usually slash the advertised jackpot by half to land at a ballpark figure of the true jackpot. I'm too experienced to fall for their gimmicks

Reply #8

PrinceRene — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 16:30:01 GMT

They don't have 'Mirage' jackpots in Canada and Europe. The advertised amount is the cash amount. They also pay zero taxes on lottery winnings.

Reply #7

Drenick1 — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:51:21 GMT

I agree that many people believe that the advertised jackpot is what a winner receives. It doesn't help when the media starts showing examples of what you can buy using the entire advertised pre-tax amount. A lot of folks also don't know that the annuity payments are progressively weighted. The winner gets about 4 times at he end of their payments when compared to the first few which by that time has depreciated considerably due to many factors such as inflation and the value of the dollar.... [ More ]

Reply #6

nist7seven — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:57:23 GMT

Casual player here and it didn't take me that longnto figure out difference between advertised jack pot and the cash option. Many people are not aware that the big money number is only an estimated one used for marketing purposes and cash option is the real jackpot. So lot of people think taxes are taken out of the big number.

Reply #5

Original Bey — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:17:36 GMT

I agree with both of you. Casual players who don't over think as many of us do. In fact, when a poster on the main discussion forum suggested that only old or rich people win, I thought to respond with maybe he should study the habits of the retirees. When they play, where they play and how much they spend when they play. I think I will join a bingo club and follow along when they go to Publix - lol.

Reply #4

IPlayWeekly — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:10:53 GMT

Yeah very true, it does seem like the casual player or a player that doesnt really play ends up winning.

Reply #3

rcbbuckeye — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 13:40:57 GMT

My wife never plays the lottery, but she won $100 in a superbowl pool so she's going to buy some PB tics tonite.

It would probably be someone like her that will win.

Reply #2

hearsetrax — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 10:56:47 GMT

yahoo still Lives

Reply #1

Original Bey — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 04:48:14 GMT

I love how media personalities go above and beyond to discourage people from playing the lottery and in the same breath they flaunt their tickets on air. If it's impossible to win why waste the dollar or two? They play with the same long shot hope that all of us do. So get off the darn high horse.

They are speaking to the audience of casual players who come out of the woodwork when jackpots are high.

'Mirage' jackpots

Coin Toss — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 04:38:57 GMT

From Yahoo Finance re: $450M PB jackpot:

But the huge jackpots like this week's $450 million prize are actually a mirage. To get that much, winners have to take payments over 30 years. However, winners rarely choose to do that. Instead, they take a smaller lump sum payment worth about one-third less than the advertised jackpot.

Most every one here at LP knows this but I just found the wording interesting.