Do you think Powerball will go to a billion dollars?

Reply #22

aquar — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 20:57:40 GMT

Nope. I'm claiming to win it tonight with my $15 dollars. GL to all.

Reply #21

haymaker — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 19:47:16 GMT

Funny thing is...when I seen it on the news I was thinking should I play ?

so it's easy to see how they rope in the occasional player.

No I still didn't, even though I just went to the store for a JC5.

Reply #20

bigbear29 — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 19:02:30 GMT

For me it does not matter because most of us can't win a million dollars from the lottery.

Reply #19

ressuccess — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 18:36:06 GMT

My vote is yes because I hope it continues to roll and becomes the largest jackpot in United States history.

Reply #18

travelintrucker — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 14:09:38 GMT

Happy one year anniversary

Reply #17

DELotteryPlyr — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 10:19:53 GMT

You forgot CALL YOUR WACKO UNCLE IN TN - RIDGE

Reply #16

travelintrucker — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:54:42 GMT

Reply #15

Groppo — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:42:59 GMT

Yes, I'm familiar with the old odds, as you've stated.

I was unaware of the new odds.

Funny how it works out. Not a Math person myself, but good to know.

Thank you for the info.

(not a Math person yourself? Well, what do you know?

Well, that's not an eas . . . . . .

Oh, one of them, eh?

Well, I . . . .

Uh huh. Did you go to school, stupid?

Yes, and I come out the same way .

Reply #14

Groppo — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:28:34 GMT

The only thing I'd like to miss if does hit 1 bil,

is the number of splits the jackpot will take.

There's no way the jackpot will stay in-tact by that point.

That's why it's important that EVERYBODY PLAY, so it gets won NOW !

CALL YOUR GRANDMA, IN DULUTH.

CALL THAT COUSIN IN OMAHA.

CALL YOUR DAUGHTER WHO LIVES WITH THAT UNSAVORY CHARACTER OF WHOM YOU DON'T APPROVE, in SALT LAKE CITY.

AND TELL THEM TO PLAY LOTS OF TICKETS.

PLEASE SOMEBODY WIN IT TOMORROW.

(I... [ More ]

Reply #13

yellowpig — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:06:37 GMT

so 400M wednesday if no one wins - it looks fairly likely

http://www.txlottery.org/export/sites/lottery/Documents/jackpotestimates/pb20160102.pdf

Reply #12

KY Floyd — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 21:42:10 GMT

Because you only choose 1 power/mega ball the increase in the number of balls has a direct linear effect. If both games had the same number of regular balls then PB odds would be 1.75 times higher instead of 1.13 times as high.

When you're choosing multiple balls from a group, the number of possible combinations isn't even close to being a linear function of the increase in the size of the group.

Here's a table showing the number of combinations as you increase from 5 of 10 to 5 of 22, and... [ More ]

Reply #11

thebizdude — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 18:33:44 GMT

Old odds were 1:175M. A 67% increase with the change.

What baffles me is the number of PBs is almost double what the number of MBs is in MM (26 vs 15 = 75% higher), yet the JP odds are only slightly higher than MM (1:292M vs 1:259M = 13% higher). Doesn't seem like the increase in WBs (69 vs 75 = 8.7% higher) would matter as much as it does.

Reply #10

travelintrucker — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 16:03:05 GMT

I don't have the time to study. Besides, all of those dates that you posted are well before the new matrix change. Back then, the odds weren't nearly close to 1 in 292 million.

Reply #9

mrbg — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 13:05:16 GMT

Maybe

Reply #8

KY Floyd — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 04:56:37 GMT

well conservative to say 700M tickets

With the old matrix about 64 cents from each ticket went to the jackpot prize pool. That's close enough to the cash/annuity ratio that figuring each dollar of advertised annuity required selling one ticket was a really simple way of being fairly close to the real number. I knew they changed that figure a bit with the new matrix, but I just double checked and it's a bigger change than I thought. Each ticket now contributes about 68 cents towards the jackp... [ More ]

Reply #7

Stack47 — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 01:32:53 GMT

November 30, 2012

January 13, 2009

February 2, 2015

May 24, 2015

December 8, 2005

And that's just a sample of how many times this subject has been discussed (twice this year). Obviously it's just opinion, but why not offer examples of how it could happen.

Reply #6

Romancandle — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:53:27 GMT

1 in 3 chance? Hmmm... Interesting

That's not too shabby...

Reply #5

lejardin — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 22:39:25 GMT

Nope.

Reply #4

thebizdude — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 22:35:48 GMT

Disregard my last post - I was thinking $1/ticket. Brainfart. You were probably well conservative to say 700M tickets, as that would be $1.4B on its own.

* sidenote - using 'B' as an abbreviation for money gets me all giddy.

Reply #3

haymaker — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:55:48 GMT

No,

If it hits the big BIL. then I'll buy 1 line.

I don't even miss playing PB

Reply #2

thebizdude — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:26:17 GMT

You make it sound like 100% of the funds brought in by ticket sales go into a JP. Try more like 70%. The lottery is a non-profit, but keep in mind it pays salaries to its workers, covers lower-tier prizes, prints slips, maintains equipment and provides incentives for retailers.

Reply #1

KY Floyd — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 19:22:08 GMT

There's a decent chance. It's still a low probability, but it's significantly more likely that it was when the current run started.

It will take sales of about another 700 million tickets to get there. To make it really simple, let's imagine we have sales of 50, 100, 200, and 350 million tickets for the next 4 drawings, resulting in jackpots of 350, 400, 600, and 1 billion. As a very rough estimate that would mean selling 16%, 28%, 48%, and 66% of possible combinations for those drawings. Tha... [ More ]

Do you think Powerball will go to a billion dollars?

travelintrucker — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 18:33:41 GMT

I think Powerball will be at $1 billion by the 20th. What say you? I'm currently in the Show Me state. Except for an Illnois lotto ticket for tonight's draw, I'm dead flat. I have to reload on EVERYTHING! Good luck in the new year