Beginning Jackpots...

Reply #18

darthfury78 — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 16:30:37 GMT

Not unless the person who wins the money invest it into the right stocks that could rise by 35%. This way, the gains from those investments could be used to pay the remaining 14.5% they owe. If one wants to invest the winnings, it's better to take the annuity because within a decade of winning, the value of the investments should exceed the initial winning amount won.

Reply #17

Murgatroyd — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 14:51:06 GMT

Don't forget that with the graduated annuity, you're getting a 5% raise every year. In year 1, you're getting about $225,000. In year 10, it's $350,000. In year 30, it's over $900,000. If the trend of the last thirty years continues, this will easily outpace growth in 95th-percentile household income.

If someone in 1985 had won 6.7 million (the equivalent of 15 million today, adjusting for inflation), and had gotten it as an annuity following the current MM payment schedule, their payment thi... [ More ]

Reply #16

Coin Toss — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 14:42:50 GMT

Murgatoyd,

Each year or so the percentage of households that your income will be higher than will decrease.

Consider if someone had won $15M or $40M 30 years ago and took the annuity.

Reply #15

maringoman — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 13:30:58 GMT

I'm in. One line for both. No extras. Let's go go

Reply #14

MaximumMillions — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 12:15:49 GMT

MM cash value would be very close to 9m$ for me, I could live very comfortably on that.

Reply #13

Murgatroyd — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 02:42:10 GMT

Actually, no. If you take the annuity, you're nowhere near the top tax bracket, and (depending on your deductions) you'll owe little or nothing beyond what's automatically withheld.

Reply #12

Coin Toss — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 02:38:46 GMT

With MM at the start point now would be the ideal tie to win it since Tuesday's - June 2 2015- hasn't claimed their jp yet.

Reply #11

Funtimz — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 01:48:42 GMT

Maybe I will switch to PB for a bit. Been doing MM for the past month and havent gotten one number...

Reply #10

Redd55 — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 01:25:11 GMT

They only hold back 25% for federal taxes but the taxes owed are going to be a lot more.

Reply #9

Murgatroyd — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 01:06:38 GMT

If you win the beginning MM jackpot, and take the annuity, your income for the next 30 years will be higher than 96% of American households. You may not be filthy rich, but as long as you don't get carried away, you should be able to live comfortably for the rest of your life.

Reply #8

LuckySmalls — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 01:04:49 GMT

I usually play atleast one or two MM, even when its a starter jackpot just to be to be in it and also I have had lucky results when only playing on or two at a time. Haven't got my PB ticket yet, but will.

I went to the local gas station to get two fantasy five tickets and instead the clerk gave me to MM, I took them anyway and didn't end up getting fantasy five tickets until today. I always think the misprints are lucky, even if they turn out to be losers, it gives me a great amount of hope... [ More ]

Reply #7

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 23:58:23 GMT

Just got my MM tic for tomorrow with megaplier. 4 or 5 million is enough to retire on. Jackpot most definately enough to retire on.

Also got a PB tic for Saturday. No powerplay. Can't retire on 1 million, or 2, but...... it would set me up and the cash jackpot of 25 million is way more than enough.

For those that think either one is not enough....I'll take it in a New York minute.

Reply #6

noise-gate — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 23:07:14 GMT

Personal: l take a pass on the starting MM jackpot. I dive in with the starting PB though. Odds are somewhat better ...well, less atrocious, imho.

Reply #5

haymaker — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 22:01:03 GMT

The beginning JP on either is fine w/ me.

But I don't have any MM tix. on my last trip to Delaware I bought 10 advance draw on PB and MM

when I got home I realized the clerk had given me 10 PB draws but on the MM tix.

he gave me 6 draws w/ the 6th having 5 lines on separate tix. so no MM for now.

Still have 4 PB draws to go.

Reply #4

jjtheprince — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:42:14 GMT

Buy PB tickets for sure! After taxes are taken out the MM prize is pretty much just chump change.

Reply #3

Ron5995 — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 20:06:28 GMT

Took 10 weeks for MM and 6 weeks for PB to build up. Many MM / PB players will sit out June and much of July. Being the summer is often slow, it will likely take until August before the jackpots build back up to the levels they were recently.

California 2nd tier winners often get hosed badly, especially with MM. Sure, there are instances in which CA 2nd tier winners make out great (ie. $7+ million on a win that pays $1 million elsewhere), but those are few and far between - most often, they'r... [ More ]

Reply #2

zephbe — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 19:29:44 GMT

I have 5 tickets for Friday's MM drawing--replaying some from Tuesday's drawing.

Reply #1

Murgatroyd — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 19:02:42 GMT

Given the inconvenience of getting to even the nearest lottery retailer, I generally buy a week's worth of tickets at a time. So, since I didn't know whether there would be a winner on Tuesday, I already have my MM ticket for Friday.

Beginning Jackpots...

Redd55 — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 18:42:57 GMT

We've got two of them: MM at 15 mil and PB at 40 mil.

With the odds so high and the winnings so low, I wouldn't buy a MM ticket.

With better odds and a higher jackpot but double the cost of the ticket, is PB much better?

I always look at the second place winnings which vary from around 300k to several million in Calif. I was also influenced by the run of about 5 PB jackpots in a period of about 4-5 weeks earlier this spring. I would be more than happy to walk away with a $40 mil jackpo... [ More ]