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Virginia Lottery Director Khalid R. Jones appointed as Mega Millions Lead DirectorReply
The states are constantly leaning on those who run the lotteries to generate more revenue. I'm sure that's what led to them bumping up the cost and odds on the MM. States love it when jackpots are high and millions are pouring in each drawing because people who don't normally play are chasing the billion dollar payouts. I imagine a meeting after the last big jackpot got hit when the weekly revenues dropped back to normal levels. The question is asked how do we change things to get those big
Dec 7, 2025, 9:36 am - OhSoClose - Lottery News

Iowa Lottery has delivered $6.1B in prizes since 1985News Story
Iowa Lottery celebrates 40 years Sales of the first Iowa Lottery tickets began in 1985 with a kickoff celebration at the Iowa State Fair. Forty years later, state fairgoers broke the Guinness World Record for the most people 1,380 to scratch lottery cards simultaneously, demonstrating the lottery's journey from $1 scratch tickets to a multibillion-dollar enterprise. Since its launch was approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Terry Branstad, the lottery has gen
Dec 5, 2025, 10:09 am - Todd - Lottery News

One Georgia ticket wins $983 million Mega Millions jackpotReply
That is just what I am doing. MM was won before it got to my target amount to begin purchasing. But, due to the price increase I would have bought 1 to 5 tickets only to have a chance in the draw. In the past at the 1 to 2 billion mark I have went for 50 tickets for $100 for a better chance, although not *much* better than 1 to 5 tickets, I know. I currently save the cost of 1 ticket per each bracket of 100 million cash value for both MM and PB games. When PB hits my target amount (not set
Nov 16, 2025, 2:42 am - IAmABadOne - Lottery News

Three $1 million winning Powerball lottery tickets sold at the same New York storeReply
Although it's theoretically possible for each ticket to have been a QP, that's so highly unlikely that it's just plain crazy to think that's what actually happened. The retailer probably sold only a few thousand PB tickets for that drawing. To make it simple let's call it 11,688 tickets, or 1 for every 1000 5+0 combinations. That makes the odds of one ticket winning a 5+0 prize 1 in 1000. The odds of 3 winning tickets is then 1 in 1 billion. Based on NY's total sales and the number of retai
Oct 29, 2025, 2:57 am - KY Floyd - Lottery News

$1.3 BILLION: Powerball jackpot soars to 5th-largest in game historyReply
there would be unnecessary criticism from some quarters of the population that it isn't right to stoke up the public into a frenzy over 100 or 200 mil. They're already trying to stoke the frenzy by inflating the actual jackpot by 120% wit the annuity. Advertising 1.4 instead of 1.3 billion will sell more tickets, and criticism about lower revenues is the only criticism they really care about. That said, I'm sure they don't want to step in it like MM did back in 2018 when they advertis
Sep 3, 2025, 3:27 pm - KY Floyd - Lottery News

$1 million Powerball lottery ticket purchased in West Virginia expiring in two weeksReply
Well the drawing has taken place already ... the number isn't exotic at all ...... I predict there will be one winner ... possibly two winners ...... and the state it was won in will be either Nebraska or Oklahoma or both If I am correct in my prediction you all celebrate with liverwurst sandwiches ... if I am wrong .... well then you'll just eat oliveloaf sandwiches. As for me right or wrong I'm gonna have Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies with lima
Aug 27, 2025, 11:24 pm - ShagE3 - Lottery News

Massachusetts man wins double $1 million Powerball lottery prizes in one drawingReply
I loved this story when I first read about it because this very lucky guy accidentally did what I've been trying to do intentionally for the last five years. In the past I've bought a ticket for one drawing (with the Power Play added) with the first five numbers on each line being exactly same. I'm not trying to win the jackpot. Rather I'm trying win a 2 million dollar second place prize five times by matching the first five numbers with each line on the ticket. It's possible for me to win
Jul 21, 2025, 7:43 am - GiveFive - Lottery News

DC Lottery offers compensation for players affected by computerized draw errorReply
I've always defended the lottery when people post this draw history is bad by pointing out that randomly drawn numbers can generate patterns that may look funny in retrospect, but if they are random and unpredictable, then there's nothing wrong with it. Not any more! I will never defend the lottery as long as they use an RNG to choose winning numbers. Probability theory applies to random number drawings that do not contain errors. I had no idea that these RNG systems had bugs in it so many t
Apr 28, 2026, 11:06 am - Tucker Black - Lottery News

EXCLUSIVE: Weeks-long computerized draw error prevented many DC Lottery tickets from winning a prizeReply
I think it goes without saying that this is a failure for the industry, and specifically for SmartPlay. The reason is that this specific error has happened so many times before, so not only the fact that their systems are allowing these kind of simple mistakes over the course of many years, but the fact that they do not have any monitoring software running that continually examines drawing results for easily-detectable patterns that should be investigated. Why does SmartPlay not have AI
Apr 22, 2026, 2:56 pm - Todd - Lottery News

Florida man arrested after attempting to cash stolen $115,000 Fantasy 5 lottery ticketReply
Here's a cut and paste from the Florida Lottery's Jackpot Winners and Retailers Report - 10/1/2025 EVENING DRAWING WINNERS NAME - MICHAEL GEORGE WILLIAMS RETAILER - LIQUOR 1 NORTH LAUDERDALE, FL 33068 7110 N UNIVERSITY DRIVE SUITE D, TAMARAC CASH OPTION - $115,732.61 QUICK PICK? NO Your guess is pretty good... But a human being somewhere had to have tipped Williams off that he was ripped off by the gas station owner. If he had first used the Florida Lottery's scanner av
Jan 22, 2026, 9:58 am - GiveFive - Lottery News