Let's roll again lol.

The FRENZY IS ON!! The local media here in Baltimore was talking about Friday's drawing jackpot on every newscast and interviewing players at convience stores. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Jackpot go to $600 million before the next drawing. Of course, I'm going to get my tickets tomorrow.

It will hit around the 600 mil mark, I have the premonition, just wish I had the winning series of numbers to hit it!. Best of luck folks!

Roll baby roll !!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday 13, December: 19-24-26-27-70 and mega ball 12 were the drawing numbers. Plus the megaplier was 2 and not 3. Cool, edited already.

My last numbers were 5-12-28-51-74 and mega ball (13) My picks!

Im thining the next set of numbers are going to be a weird combination. So i will do my best to pick the most messed up combinations possible! WIsh me luck! LOL

I want to see the line at the Terribles lottery store at the Las Vegas/California border.

Season's Greetings Goteki54,

     They wanted a Billion Dollar jackpot, and I think they'll get it just before Christmas..........after that drawing, then we'll have ourselves some winners.

Dreamer,

More money than I could ever dream of. Dream and dream.

Mine were 2-3-42-45-70 and MB 6.  I always seem to get at least one or two correct in all my self picked numbers.  Unfortunately,  I'm still so far away from winning

Will this be the 1 billion $$$ jackpot?

Come on people Megapiler! Megapiler! Megapiler!

Spent 10 bucks on it today and got nothing its been like this since the matrix change

I knew the CV was low but seeing it with the other big jackpots really makes it stand out.

My last nght's Mega nos. were 12,16,21,25,28 and the golden no. 12, (the winning nos. were 19,24,26,27, 70 and no.12 as the golden number), thus clinching my fifth win in the new matrix. I am very much energized by the new Megamillions matrix. I think there is some glimmer of hope or maybe some light at the end of the tunnel....

Bigger and bigger!!! 

What a wonderful Christmas miracle it will be for some lucky lottery player this year!

Wow! Wow! Wow!   Party time!!!

 heres to setting a new record

Count me in! 

Nothing on my tickets, but $6 to roll for the office pool.

singlewinnersinglewinnersinglewinner

I had 1+1 last night.

With the matrix change I don't see the point of buying more than one ticket.

I had a 2 + 1 last night!!

Oh wow I think mega millions is going to roll again on Tuesday and break records, here in Canada our Lotto Max was also not won yesterday so next week is going to be $50 million + 50 max million (50 extra chances of winning a $1 million) making it tied for the largest jackpot in Canadian history, all cash value and no taxes 

I think it will hit $600 million before the next drawing!!!

I wonder why they raised the numbers to 70?  The odds of winning is not of this world!

Yeah, that $550M was ultra ultra conservative. I should get bumped up to at least $650M-$700M range, world record breaking territory!

They actually raised them to 75.

I agree that it will hit that range!!  I only hope that with Christmas so close the little kiddies don't have their stockings filled with losing mega million tickets.

 "Sorry kids, I blew your stocking stuffer money on Mega Millions tickets, I couldn't even afford a lump of coal!"

$550 million woo Hoo 

Lmao!

Wow!!!!!!  May the winner do honorably with this RIDICULOUS BLESSING, to himself/herself,  to family, friends, community, and less fortunate.

I only matched the mega ball last night.  I might let it roll without jumping in on tuesday.

woo hoo is right!

The jackpot will get to a billion after this next drawing.

That's a lot of tacos.

Maybe it will be Christmas in December for me!

I cannot wait to see how much it is on Tuesday!

I will celebrate with high tea should I be so fortunate to win .............

The annuity value is just vastly more inflated than it used to be. The cash value is exactly what it should be, and would be advertised as a $420 million jackpot if they hadn't changed the annuity schedule.

Even that value is higher than it would have been a year ago, because interest rates are a bit higher. During the record MM run in March 2013 this cash value would have been advertised as a $411 million jackpot. Ironically, that would result in this jackpot being called the 5th largest, even though the (current) cash value does make it the 4th largest

Not that the cash value isn't a boatload of money, but as of now it's only about 61% of the $477 million record. Even if the final tally increases the advertised jackpot by $107 milion, which will result in a lot of hype about the "new" record, the winner(s) will get less than 3/4 of what the real record paid.

A real record will require the annuity value to reach about $888 million. Considering sales to this point, that probably requires another rollover. A more modest jump to 690 would mean enough cash to move up to the 3rd place spot. That's a good bit more likely without another rollover.

Here you go folks, Mega Millions meets the Twilight Zone.

Dateline: The near future

A representative of the MUSL today said that they knew no one would ever win MM with the new 75 number matrix. The rep. saidt they wanted to get everyone in a frenzy with the thought of a 1 billion dollar jackpot, knowing it would never be hit. The whole thing was a marketing test and the game wil resort back to the former matrix.

The MUSL says thanks for playing and Have A Lucky Day.

Wow!!!!!!  May the winner do honorably with this RIDICULOUS BLESSING, to himself/herself,  to family, friends, community, and less fortunate.

It seems like no concerns over the odds being ridiculous against you now. How fast people forget about everything with the amount being so high. Wake up people! You are like a baby feeding into this garbage. You stand a better chance of getting hit by an asteroid or comet.

Think about a list of things you have more than likely getting than the jackpot. Now that's the fact of the matter.

If you feel like you must play get one ticket only and let it be, but don't overdo it.

How about that

Good idea to come on a Lottery website and instruct people not to play because the odds are bad.   

In Other News:   Water is wet...

Did you play or are going to play, Cupcake10?

2+pb = I'm still flushing money down the toilet.

I believe that the original poster was right, but explained him/herself wrong.

I was about to make the same comment.

The whole thing started with the Powerball rule change some time ago. I am sure you realized too that the PB Jackpot have risen faster and higher because of the higher cost and the worse odds of the new system.

I think the Megamillions franchise wanted to address this issue changing the odds from 175million : 1 to 250million : 1. This would result less frequent Jackpot hits and higher Jackpot payout. The higher Jackpot values would generate more playslips. The fact that cost of a MM ticket remained $1 also helps to get more people involved in MM rather than PB:)

BUT - and I believe this is going to be a big mistake - the odds are so bad now, that it cause jackpot payouts to rise to the extremes.

How would you manage two or three jackpots a year, each of them around $800-900 million (and a coulpe of more with much less winnings)? Just look at this weeks number, the jackpot jumped $100 million between two drawings! Imagine that there will be no winners in the next 2-3 weeks!

The whole point of Mega Millions and Powerball is to create big jackpots.  If you want to play for smaller jackpots, nearly every state has other in-state games offering smaller jackpots.

If I win an $800 million jackpot, I think I'll somehow manage it.  It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

BTW, it was lucky that nobody won the jackpot Friday, because with nine 5+0 winners, the odds were better that someone would hit.

I Am with you Todd Vader!

1 ticket, 1 Winner!

and may the almighty have mercy on the one poor soul that gets that lucky

I don't think it's as bad as advertised.   Outside of possible pressure from friends and family it's easy to say no to the rest.    Maybe you have to be that person to understand but there's plenty of people who have won big jackpots and never been heard from again.

Todd, you are right: if you are the player, the higher the jackpot, the better you feel

But now you have a LOT LESS change to win a LITTLE MORE* money.

Which one is the better: 20 winners taking home $300mill or 5 winners with $8-900millions?

Also this whole competition between PB and MM is escalating in front of our eyes: we pay more for the game and it's less likely that we (anyone) would hit the jackpot.

When I wrote 'how do you manage...', I meant how do the two franchises manage that they pay out nearly a billion dollar to the avarage joe (like me)

Don't get me wrong, I still play both games (just buying fewer PB tickets per week).

*couple o' hundred mill's more 

Answer:  It's better to have fewer winners take home bigger jackpots. 

Why?  Because if the game was structured so that 30 people split the jackpot, then the jackpot would NEVER grow to a large size because the game would be too easy to win.  Then Mega Millions would fail, and we would not even be having this discussion.

It is large jackpots that draw huge numbers of people to play.  People don't line up around the block for a chance to win a million or so.  There are a ton of games that offer million-dollar prizes.  Play a raffle, they are perfect for that kind of thing.

Todd:

I don't play raffle, OK!? 'Cause I love me my millions! Hunderds of millions.

(what i tried to say -  and this is just one way to look at it - i would give up the 800 hunder million jackpot that I most likely will never win to take home 300 million dollars that I more likey to get. all of this is theoretical, the chances are so low that I won't win in any of the cases. But I am still buying the tickets. Twice a week, every week. Even if it is for 'only' $40 millions. Do I sound desperate ?)

9 people won the 5+0....9!

With only 15 mega balls, that is surprising that none of those won the jackpot. Even more surprisong is the fact that 9 people beat 1/18m odds on a single draw.

Giving up a $800 million jackpot in order to take home $300 million is wishful thinking. The cash value of an $800 million annuity is roughly $429 million. Factor in just the portion of total Federal taxes that would be owed and your net payout would be $259 million. State taxes would make yet an even bigger dent on the overall take home amount.

The fact that there were 9 second prize winners is actually within reason.

18,492,204 * 9 = 166,429,836

Last night's sales were 167,868,489

Also, going by single draw coverage only, there was less than 50% chance of there being a jackpot winner. Next draw might be a different story.

I'm happy that Colorado had a 5+0 winner!  Another landlocked state that usually never wins anything.

Boo Hoo bubu, this is no time for picnic baskets. We want extreme jackpots. The more extreme the better, that's why we play. Better to have one person win $800-900M JACKPOT, than to have it split several ways. It's getting sweeter. Keep rolling baby, till we make it to $1billy. Hallelujah!!! 

Dude, the CV is still over 50 percent of the AAV so I will still throw $5 at a chance to win. 

Now the game Illinois is raking in huge profits from is Lucky Day Lotto which is a match 5 game with jackpot starting at $100k. There are twice daily drawing and it increases by 50k if no winner(s). It used to increase more when sales were higher than projected, but not anymore. However, I have to give Illinois Lottery props for listening to their players. When we first got to play online, there was no purchase minimum. Then they instituted a $5 purchase minimum, but at time you could only pay for one particular game before selecting numbers for another game for purchase. So if one wanted to play both MM and PB, you had to fork out $11 minimum. But I am happy to announce Illinois Lottery has added a cart feature (similar to every other retail online site like Amazon, Office Depot, Macys, TGW, etc) which enables you to select numbers for MM, add to cart and then select numbers for another game. Kudos Illinois. And as you might know, you have to be an Illinois resident and physically in Illinois in order to purchase online.

And WHEN I am that "unlucky" soul, I will be sure to get a PO box that I will give to lottery commission as my mailing address. I will have no problem flying to the lottery headquarters to obtain copy of necessary tax documents so eventually all those beggar requests will get returned to sender when mailbox gets too full. I will also change my doorbell chime to an audible "NO Is The Answer To Your Question" and I would have 2 doorbells. The obvious one would be the one I mentioned and the normal one would be under a decorative wall piece.

You're 100% correct.   I used to play that game all the time and I stopped playing that and the Pick 4 when they started to screw around with them.   Lucky Day (Little Lotto) was the best game out there.   Like you said if sales were more than projected they would add it to the pot and make the lesser prizes more.   Those days are gone.   I rarely play it unless like this past two weeks it gets over $500,000 which happened twice with both going into the $700,000 range.   It's a total joke, hardly anybody plays during the day so it's like supporting somebody else's pot when they win.    Good post, when they changed that game is when I finally gave up two different games.  I should have given up Mega Millions too because my numbers don't apply anymore since the Mega Ball only goes up to fifteen.

Does Mega Millions have inside information, they state it will be a Christmas Miracle for some lucky lottery player this year! How do they know someone is going to win this Christmas.

assuming

It's fixed.  Some lost cousin of a MM employee will win it.

$550M+

  I will also change my doorbell chime to an audible "NO Is The Answer To Your Question".

I like that. I want one that says "Go Away".

They wouldn't even get to my doorbell.

The security guard at the front gate to my compound armed with an AR-15 would repel all moochers.

Jon

do you play draw games like MM just like you play scratchers?

You can give the lottery officials a temporary PO box then change it shortly after. If you move to a ultra secure neighborhood, there would be no need to have a special door bell. There are numerous communities that offer their residences both privacy and security.

Any "unlucky" soul would be best advised to relocate. Anyone who believes that they can stay put at their current residence is purely dilusional unless they already reside in a private, guard gated enclave.

I play all games, but mostly Scratchers. Minimal on JP games and rarely daily games.

Normally all the MM/PB games get from me is 1 line per draw, that's it. Except when the JP is high like now I may throw more in, and play less on other games.

With a big JP it's more of a social experience I think. Everyone else beyond regular lottery players gets in on the game, and it becomes a topic of discussion with your friends and coworkers, "did you get your tickets? Wow, what would you do with all that money?"

People that sit out and say, "Meh, the JP ain't big enough, or you're just throwing your money away." That's not the point. I know I'm throwing my money away and it's likely not coming back. It's entertainment and the social experience.

I thought this was kind of amusing.   What's wrong with the picture on top besides being an outdated play sheet? 

http://www.630wpro.com/common/more.php?m=58&ts=1387031704&article=CD40636763EE11E3B51EFEFDADE6840A&mode=2

It's funny to watch all the news people go nuts over this MM JP, especially the clueless ones.

You see them on TV all excited at the local store interviewing people. Saying stuff like, "the new game has changed to choosing 6 balls from 1 - 75 instead of 1 - 56" odd are higher, odds are lower, and all the multitudes of statistical comparisons, like you're more likely to _____________ than you are to win the jackpot.

W O W !!!

 I reckon the olplugger will bet a buck or two on thisone!!

It's simple probability. I can tell you you're not going to win, and the chance that I'll be wrong is a miniscule fraction of 1%. If somebody wins any time between now and New Year's eve the lottery will happily call it a Christmas miracle, and not many people will argue.

If it keeps rolling, even a very conservative estimate would put sales at 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 million. Being conservative again, that would mean the chance of not  having at least one winner would be about 50%, 40%, 30%, 30% and 20%. That makes the overall chance of rolling past New Year's eve 0.36% if sales don't increase very much. Assuming stores can print a lot more then 400 million tickets per drawing the chance of 5 more rollovers is probably a good bit less than 1 in 1000. Figuring there's still a fair chance for arollover on Tuesday and sales will get ridiculously big, there's probably at least a 90% chance that there's at least one very happy camper come Christmas morning.

In the very unlikely event it does continue to roll, the lottery will just jump up and down and publicize the wonderful start to the new year that some lucky people are having.

Todd,

"BTW, it was lucky that nobody won the jackpot Friday, because with nine 5+0 winners, the odds were better that someone would hit."

Do you really consider a house advantage of 240M : 1 'lucky" for the house?

Using round numbers, odds against 5 + 1 are 258M :1

Odds againt 5 + 0 are 18M :1

That's a differnce of 240M.

258 - 18  = 240, no?

You're the guru of lottery information...how many games out there are 240M : 1 odds? Most state Pick 6 games are somewhere around 20M :1.

It sounds enticing that 9 people (or any number of peoplre) would have hit 5 + 0, but that's all part of the hype.Having the 5 and the right number of the 15 Mega numbers combined is the challenge. It hasn't happened yet and it isn't going to happen all too often.  This game is now designed to make MM richer and richer and richer and the rare jackpot winner is just the price of doing business.

____________________________________________

Old School Pa,

What's brining in revenue for Lucky Day Lotto is the fact that the player doesn't have the option of specifying Midday or Evening. On My3, Pick 3, and Pick 4 you have that option. On Lucky Day Lotto you can play multidraw but players who intended on playing just the next draw often play the next two. Say the jackpot is $500,000 for the evening and you know you won't be able to get the next day's Midday in time. Bingo, Northstar has turned another $1 play into a $2 play, times how many people?

 to many numbers on the top

The causal player can care less about the odds. It's not like PB's odds are a cream puff either. When I play MM, I would like to hit the jackpot, but I am more so treating this as a 5/75 game aiming for the $1 milllion dollar 2nd prize. Even with the Gold Money ball not included, the odds are still 1 in 17,259,390

I can't think of nothing better then nailing the jackpot on Chritmas Eve!!!

Yup!

It has nothing to do with the overall odds.  The real-world likelihood of a jackpot winner is determined by how many people hit 5+0.  Seasoned lottery players know that the more birthday numbers drawn, the more likely there will be a winner.  I'm sure the low numbers drawn Friday helped increase the number of 5+0 winners, which in turn made it more likely than not that someone would win the jackpot.  (A 9-in-15 chance, or 60% chance.)  The fact that nobody won therefore was in fact "lucky".

I agree with you 100%. Luck is Luck!!!

Wait...$550M??

That's the odds I get when I calculate odds for matching 5/5 with 75 balls.  However, MM has it at 18.5 mil.  Do you know how they calculate their odds for 5/5?  Just curious.

In general this is faulty. The number of second place winners was consistent with the odds and sales. Nothing extraordinary. You could have more than 15 second place winners and still no jackpot winner.

Luck has nothing to do with it....probability does. There was about a 48% chance of a jackpot winner based on sales. That which is most probable usually reigns king. In this case there was a 52% chance of no winner.

There are occasions when conscious selection bias does affect the outcome, i.e. birthday numbers. However, for Mega Millions there are fewer than 3 million of those instances out of the near 259 million. Not very significant.

Calculate odds of matching 5 of 5 AND not matching the 1 of 15 Megaball.

(17,259,390 ÷ 1) × (15 ÷ 14) = 18,492,204 (lottonumbers dot net has great explanation)

It can be confusing but just remember you calculate odds for that prize only and not any other prize.

Thanks.

I'm puzzled by the 9 second place winners. If terminals are repeating the same QP numbers, then it's possible that all combinations may never be played even if they sell a billion tics

It usually never even has to get that close.

Once you get past 86% combos sold, you can stick a fork in it, it's done! And if not, it'll probably be well before 95%.

Also, even though there were 9 5/5 white ball matches, probably had 1 or 2 with dupe mega ball, so really only 7 or 8 chances out of 15 for 5+1 JP hit.

Why puzzled? I'm sure some sets of #'s are repeated but if they sell say 10 million tickets with the 1st number being "2" and either those were self picks or quick picks and "2" doesnt come up then those 10 million tickets are losers for 2nd place and so on etc. So ya you can sell a crap load of tickets and have few winners

Todd,

OK, I'm sure anyone who has watched the drawing and had all five top numbers is on more than pins and needles watching the Megaball and 'knowing' it's a '1 in 15' shot at that point, but it hasn't happened yet.

Also, you can't really say that those nine 5 + 0 winners made it a 9-in-15 chance because that assumes they all had a different Mega number, no?

With the 56 matrix Mega Millions used to post on their site that they paid out 10 to 12 jackpots a year. It will be interesting to see how many paid out one year into this matrix.

I am thinking coin toss it will be 5 to 6 jackpots a year under this new matrix.  We will see in 2014.-weshar75

I assume this was intended to be funny, but you're definitely on to something.

Agreed Todd.  I was sure the jackpot was won when only one number above 31 came out of the hopper.  That 70 barely saved it this time.

When you have 30% of players picking birthday numbers millions of duplicate tickets down low.  I'd quess from here on out it will take 4 numbers coming out of the hopper above 31 to save this jackpot from being won.

Choosing combinations at random guarantees that se combinations wil be repeated when they sell millions of tickets. Depending on how ambitious you are you can demonstrate it for yourself with a die, a deck of cards, or whatever you have 259 million of. If you roll a die 5 times and get 5 different numbers there's a 1 in 6 chance you'll get the remaining number with your 6th roll, and a 5 in 6 chance you'll repeat one of the other numbers.

Most of the time, rolling a die just 4 times will  result in at least one number repeating. The second roll gives you a 5/6 or 83.33% chance of getting a new number. Rolling a 3rd time gives you a 4/6 or 66.66% chance of getting a new number, but only if the 2nd number wasn't a repeat. The 4th time it's 3/6 or 50% for a new number. That means the chance of rolling 4 times without repeating a number is .8333 x .6666 x .5, which is .277, or a hair under 28%. Just slightly better than every 4th time.

With a deck of cards or 259 million lottery combinations you'll usually need a lot more than 3 or 4 tries to produce repeats, but the same thing  holds true. As for selling all combinations, it's veryy unlikely to ever happen. Statistically you'd need to sell well over a billion tickets in order to  use every combination. Selling a billion tickets may be theoretically possible, but even if people would buy that many it would only happen after the jackpot has already reached well over a billion dollars. That means the chance of ever selling enough tickets to sell 99% of the combinations is itself something that's very unlikely.

"258 - 18  = 240, no?"

258 ÷ 18 = 14.333. The "difference" of 240 is meaningless. Probability is about ratios, not addition and subtraction. Since the distribution of the combinations sold isn't uniform we shouldn't expect that the 9 5+0 winners used 9 different mega balls,  but it definitely tells us that 9 people had a 1 in 15 chance of matching 5+1.

That means each of those people had a 6.666% chance of choosing the winning mega ball and a 93.333% chance of not picking the right mega ball. The chances that none of them would pick the right mega ball is then .9333^9, or 53.74%. That's very close to the overall odds that selling 168 milion tickets wouldn't produce a winner, which is what  we should expect when the number of 2nd place winners is very close to what probability suggests.

I'd be curious to know what happens to the  QP to self-pick ratio when the jackpot causes ticket sales to be unusually high. I would guess that  the infrequent players are more likely to  get QP's, so the 70 to 80% figure we hear so often may be based on 70% QP for typical sales and 80% for higher sales volumes. That would reduce the chances of birthday numbers making a winner more likely.

For a jackpot of $100 million, selling 20% of the possible combinations might result in a 25% chance of a winner if all numbers drawn are birthday numbers. If a big jackpot results in selling 65% of the combinations drawing all birthday numbers might only increase the chances of a winner to 70%. The first is 25% more likely than random probability, but the 2nd is only 8% more likely.

This one will be over $3,OOO,OOO,OOO before it is won.

Fatigue will set in and sales will collapse.

You really think so? You think people will become disinterested? I noticed that no 8s have fallen into the white ball yet

People are jamming in extra money that they can't really afford>> to chase the Rainbow.

That will slow down pretty soon. Theres a limit to diminishing return.

Getting closer & closer to that historic billion $ jackpot.

IT won't get to a billion....Someone will hit it before that happens. I'm thinking someone in the East Coast! LOL

There are many who are going to put down hundreds of dollars and win nothing.  The new odds are worse than the old one. A dollar or 5 is good enough.

 I rarely spend more then a couple bucks

This High jackpot is making people do what that don't normally do

 Come on Lottery let THE people Win already

Mega Millions Dec 17th $550 MILLION

People can put as much as they want down. I say the more the better, because you know that if I won it or you or whoever,  they are going to be oh so happy and have no problem with the amount of $ that's now theirs.

I know that I am not going to be a winner, I will not buy 20 tickets but I will take my chances to buy 1 or 2 tickets only

Rest depends upon statistics and my LUCK!!!!

 to a certain extent. Sales may lessen if the JP rolls to $3B, but more likely due to less money being available to spend as much as they have been spending on tickets. All those holiday bonuses would have dried up, credit card cash advances overextended, disposable income disposed. 

And frankly, God help the person who shows up to collect that check if he/she doesn't have sense or cunning. When thrust in front of the media spotlight, they will never again know a moment's peace. I can well imagine all the parasites who will sue or threaten physical harm to get a share of it. If it's yet another braggard or drug addict, $3 billion or not, they'll still end up bankrupt and/or dead within 5 years.

So if you won you would feel bad or upset for the people who put down $20, $50, $100+ on the next draw?....lol

My new hideaway tucked safely in a nearby gated community!

I wouldn't I'd be doubled over

Good choice!

That looks like a good hideaway. And it's always good to have a plan. 

A great home. How much for it?

The same here>>>I usually only do $1 terminal Quik pik.

Chances are better of an Asteroid crashing on a Hemorrhoid.

Butt I have a deck of cards 1-75 & drew 8 for a $5 Wheel with a Gaurantee:

If 5 Numbers played correct 1 ticket will match 4 numbers

02-03-04-06-08 +QPMB

01-03-04-05-06 +QPMB

03-04-05-06-07 +QPMB

01-03-04-06-07 +QPMB

01-02-05-07-08 +QPMB

This is the best I can do without pumping in the cash

It sold for $990,000 in 2012, I would offer $1,050,000.

Owned by a local executive who is most likely moving up somewhere else.

The property taxes are reasonable around here.

I do research!

Not so fast..... If the JP ever gets to $3Billy, some usually clear thinking people, might be tempted to refinance, take out 2nd mortgages or whatever just to be in it. Others who are not so well-off, might eat Mac and cheese or do the dollar menu thing for a month, just to be in it. That's why they call it gambling. You sacrifice what you can afford. If you go nuts about it and lose, or you choose not to play, and your number hits, you have nobody but yourself to blame. With a JP that high, people will do whatever they can, including stealing, just to be in it. I'd rather have it capped at $1Billy until somebody wins it, and the next JP starts at $1Billy. But you can never trust these lottery people, so screw the capping, and keep it rolling until some lucky person wins it.

Wow I thought it would cost around 3-5 million.

It would be that much elsewhere.

And the property taxes are about $15,000/year!

Highly, highly, highly Unlikely!!!! Sales might plateau but certainly not fall precipitously. Remember, most tickets sold this time around were a mere $1 or $2. If it gets to that prize range those people will up it to $5 or $10 dollars. Furthermore, people won't "run out" of money for the lottery, the darn thing cost a buck to get in on the action. Worst case scenario they'll simply skip the friday night movie, skip the dinner date, give lottery tickets as gifts, have lottery parties, join big and bigger pools at work, with friends or with family etc. If and when it gets to a $1 Billion plus, i guarantee you, no such thing as fatigue. Just more and more purchases with new innovative ways of getting in on the action. Believe that!!!

F.Y.I. These gated communities are not devoid of nefarious activities.

I have two questions. Who would do a blind trust? And if nobody wins Tuesday how much would it be on Friday?

Blind Trust is a good idea but wouldn't do you any good in most States. The reason for this is because in MOST States, not all, even if a prize is claimed under a Trust, the person/trustee/beneficary's name is STILL public knowledge. It all depends on the States you're in. No winner Tuesday will certainly yield a $800-$900million range.....EASILY!!!

Wait!!! I take that back. The Blind Trust is actually a TERRIBLE idea i think. Because its you who will have little control over the Trust i think. Remember, a  Blind Trust does not necessarily means blind to the public, it can mean blind to YOU, the beneficiary. Thread carefully my firend, they can be complicated so do your research and plan wisely for your SECOND prize win. ; ))

We are very active in our own security out here in semi-rural Pennsylvania.

Last evening a druggie got 1 warning shot into the ground. He was held by the neighbors until the State Police collected him.

We do not play nice & protect oursleves according to PA State Law.

Someone in PA collected via trust & their name & the name of the trust was published! Mission NOT accomplished!

Sounds like winning could be a headache for some people with all the expectations of relatives, friends, neighbors and even strangers.  The first thing the winner might has to look into is security before even talking to a lawyer or financial planner.

Wow. I better not wear a hoodie and eat skittles in your neighborhood.

Its already a headache now dealing with all those people and i'm broke!! LOL.. So i'll gladly take the cash and the new problems that may arise as a result. I'll trade my current problems for new ones any day. At least with those new headaches, I'll be able to eat exceptionally well, get the best healthcare, travel at will and quite comfortably, have the freedom for myself to nurish and rejuvenate by simply getting away. Trust me I'll find comfortabe ways of dealing with these suposedly new problems, i'm sure of that!!!!

He was on private property and was caught red handed trying to break into a car ON PRIVATE PROPERTY ...........

Sounds like winning Ohio classic lotto is a headache!  Lol

I'm always surprised to hear people talk about not eating well in a country where nobody bothers to plant a garden in their back yard and many don't even bother to learn how to prepare food even if it's available to them.

the lucky horoscope pick told me these are my lucky jackpot numbers

lets see what happens 

11 12 24 66 71 12

Winning the Ohio Classic Lotto with its present jackpot would be just right.  It's enough to feel comfortable without the burdens of being considered filty rich by those around you.

Nice Poly! Good luck mate.

Good luck to you also!

Have a Merry Christmas no matter what happens!

The megaplier doesn't multiple the jackpot so why would anyone trying to win a $550 million jackpot spend an extra buck on it when they could spend it on another chance to win the jackpot?

You are clearly living in a different country from the one I'm living in. "Plant a garden in their backyard"???? Really??? hahahah, that's a joke rihgt?. A where exactly is this backyard that i'm/we're supoosed to have?? You certainly are kidding right??

Well, i'm always surprised to hear people talk about the country they are living in but really have no idea of how or what life really is like for many if not most in the same country you are talking about. I live in a very nice neigborhood and i'm not even allowed to plant flowers much less food. Not to mention the MILLIONS of people who live in apts/condos/town homes or even neighborhoods where due to 'zoning' nothing can be planted for consumption. A back yard huh?

And about preparing food that's available to them, come on. Really? You are one of those that really think that the garbage offered in these supermakets count as real food right? hahaha, again, another laugh. Good luck to you and enjoy your garden. You probably were being sarcastic so my apologies if i came off a bit harsh.

The question is DDOH937, will you move from Antartica if you win?

Fair point. I get your logic but think of this.....since the new rules have been implemented, there have been 39 million dollar winners, THIRTY NINE!!!!. Most of which only won $ 1 million. Had they bought the megaplier, their winnings would have ranged from $2 million - $5 million. And since NO ONE has won the big prize and there have been 39 second place winners, i think that suggests that the odds of winning the second place prize is MUCH MUCH higher. Hence the need for multiplier!!!

Stack47,

Because they are much morel likely to win $2 to $5 million than the jackpot. Or 2 to 5 X $5,000, etc...

G26GRACE27,

Interesting that your horosocope has evidently adjusted ti the new MM matrix!

Well I thought the 1 billion mark would be Jan 10th, but it will be before the years.

On another note, I bought 2 QP, and 2 Self pick with megaplier. Good luck to me

Just something i noticed from the show MOST people that have won the Lottery Jackpots buy odd number of tickets.

If you don't like where you live then move.  I wasn't always where I live now.

Did you ever think that THIRTY NINE million dollars winners won because they brought more tickets rather than less with the chance to double their money only if they won?

My state has a blind trust and keeps your name private.

Oh, ok then. I'll just move tomorrow morning. Silly me, what have i been thinking all this time working 2 jobs, saving for my future and being prudent with my finances. Crazy crazy me, i'll just up and move first thing tomorrow morning....to a house with a back yard where i can plant a garden just like you right? The madness that exists out there is beyond me, you have a great day RJOH and good luck to you.

If you are from Chicago then that's only half the story unfortunately. It ONLY applies to Illinois residence who had a Trust or LLC established BEFORE winning. If you win and then decide to create one to claim your prize, then you are out of luck. The cloak of the LLC or Trust wouldn't apply then. These States have all these crazy rules hidden within their rules. But you are right in the fact that in Illinois, you can use a LLC and or Trust to claim while having your name withheld. Its just that it needs to have already been established for privacy to be permitted. A bit sneeky on their part if you ask me.

Thank you

That's exactly what Stack47 was saying i think. I was merely pointing out that another strategy to consider would be going for the second prize and upping your chances for a bit more dough by getting the multiplier. I get what you're saying though and you are not at all wrong, its just that after reading most of these winners stories you see that they purchased anywhere from 1 - 5 tickets/set of numbers. Its not like they were going 20/30 deep. Well, at least that's what they say, you never really know i suppose.

 but someone may get a smaller prize worth the extra $1.00 check the odds

I'll go along with that>>>>>

I'd rather have 10 tickets than 5

They didn't buy the Megaplyer either or their win would have been 2,3 or 4 times

Hey you can't grow a Garden at Antartica>> it's too cold.

But 2 Jobs>>>WOW!!

I didn't know they had  a Walmart and a Micky D's Down there.

Arrowhead,

Call the 'marketing test' scenario one of those 80/20 things, 80% joke, 20% just maybe....but if the just maybe came in it wouldn't surprise me.

Another thing I could see is someone hitting the jackpot and some lottery exec. freaking out saying, "No one was ever supposed to hit this #!$$^*".

Anybody have a guess how high this will be on Tuesday!?

625

If they don't raise it, prob be the snow storms fault. ...lol

   Good find.

tks man i thought it appropriate this time of year.

here in Aust.  we have PB at $40M, and Oz lotto at $70M.  no taxes, lump sum.   kind of exciting pre xmas fervour building here to. i got fingers crossed for the double this week.

LOL!!HAHAHAHA.. Good one Burns..

Yep 2 jobs down here in the cold.....mostly with penguins though. For my day job i gather poop from penguins for lab testing. Night Job: Ice cream maker!!! Shhhh, don't tell anyone but both my jobs overlap in very very interesting ways!!! Hahaha 

Which would almost guarantee another roll right? Hope so!

"Wait!!! I take that back. The Blind Trust is actually a TERRIBLE idea i think. Because its you who will have little control over the Trust i think."

Some of our members call all thrusts "blind trusts" probably not knowing there is a huge difference.

Of course they are more likely to win a 1 out of 15 chance compared to a 1 out of 258 million chance, but if they are just playing for the 1 out of 258 million chance (the $550 million jackpot), players get twice as many chances buying 2, 10, 20, or 1200 $1 tickets.

If we're playing to win the jackpot two chances are better than one, but I won't knock anyone purchasing half as many tickets trying to get better payoffs on the prizes they are more likely to win either. Proportionally to ticket sales, Megaplier tickets for Friday drawing were less than for Tuesday.

If this jackpot turns into the same type of frenzy as March 30, 2012, it will be interesting to see how many Megaplier tickets are sold.

Agreed. Usually, when the jackpot is high, I'll just buy one megaplier and a couple regular ones. 

Question - does anyone else usually buy their tix at a couple different stores? Friday night I drove around to 3 stores buying 1 or 2 tickets at each for a grand total of $6. I also try to buy on the day of and towards dinner time as I've noticed some winners have bought them at those times.

Splurged, bought a ticket in one state and a ticket in another state.

Agree. Like I said on a previous thread, most players play mm or pb for the jackpot. So they rather have more chances at it then less chances for a higher minor prize. If u wanna play for a smaller prize, u r better off playing the state games which have much better odds of winning those smaller prizes. As I once learned from reading a book on casino games. The house would never introduce a side bet to a game if the odds weren't in the house's favor of winning that side bet.

or maybe $625 mil. come Tuesday night's drawing

I'm renting ($1) that dream till then"

".....game now boasts a swelling jackpot of more than a half-billion dollars that could instantly put someone among the wealthiest people on the planet."

Hmmm...I don't know who they are kidding.  But being among the wealthiest??  Haven't they seen the damage the government does in taxes??  And how much they gank BEFORE taxes??  Sheesh...

Would be a nice chunk to play with nonetheless.

 good idea

Cute

The main stream media is the WORST.  It's funny listening to them give out wrong cash value amounts and flashing 30 million dollar jets and 100 million dollar real estate...as a possibility with a 550 million dollar jackpot.  After taxes if you bought a 100 million dollar home and a 30 million dollar jet you would be on Lotterys Biggest Losers in a few years.....

LOL a few years?? If you spend money like that you'd be the biggest loser by the end of this sentence LOL

I just heard on the radio that this jackpot could set a new record when MUSL issures a jackpot update later today which could be well over $600M.

Thanks for the info!

You wouldn't have enough left to turn on the electricity in the house or to fill up the jet with jet fuel.

That's what I was thinking.  With a bigger jackpot, people will spend more heavily and more people will get in on the action.  And being constantly on the news now...  Most people that will be buying tickets this week wouldn't recognize a T-bone about MM's odds, the MM rules or even know that the MM rules have been changed.  They are just buying a piece of paper with a chance to win big money.  Fatigue?  That's a joke.

I'm sure the MM willl be $800m before Tuesday's drawing and a $1B+ before Friday.  The big rollers are getting in now.  Crazy!

I think it will be $620,000,000 by tuesday night at the drawing time.......

Even if the annuity got bumped up to $685 million it would still be 4th overall in terms of cash value.

 Even worse is mentioning giving $450 million away to family and friends and keeping just a $100 million for themselves. What these people don't realize is that the cash value ($295.3M) after all Federal tax obligations are paid would only net roughly $178 million. If their state has an income tax and they happen to reside in NY city the burden would be another $35 million in taxes due. 

The broadcast I saw was from NY and it might be kind of hard giving away $450 million especially when you only netted $150 million.

Breaking news.  Cnn said Jackpot is now 586 million dollars now

Not to mention unless someone wants to use up their lifetime gift tax exclusion of $5,250,000, only the first $14,000 ($28,000) of a gift per person, is nontaxable each year (2013 rates). Everything you give a single person over that amount per year, may be taxed at up to 40% by the IRS.

This is another area where big lottery winners quickly fall into trouble.

Cash value is now $316 million.

Sorry for the error. The $28,000 figure is for the max nontaxable gift given by a married couple.

Valuable info, thank you.  So if you go around thinking you can make all your family and many of your friends millionaires themselves, you end up with a whacking big tax bill the next year?  What's the best way around this? Or how to minimize the tax hit?

Just an update. The jackpot increase is both a result of last Friday's sales and tomorrow night's projected sales.

Last Friday they projected about 104 million in sales (lol)....turned out to be 168 million.

For tomorrow night they had projected about 206 million in sales.....now they are projected nearly 242 million.

No word yet on the prospective rollover jackpot, I will have that tomorrow afternoon as usual 

Are these limits for straight cash gifts?  What if you pay off their student loans, mortgages, credit card bills, etc.?

You're welcome. 

One way to get around it is to split it at the beginning with family, if your state allows it, have the lottery commision write you folks multiple smaller checks instead of the big one.

In my state of Texas we are not allowed to do this as they have the one claimant per ticket rule, but there is a loophole. You may enter into a legally binding lottery pool (entity) with family and friends and have the document with all the members names and signatures notarized. This must be done before you buy your ticket(s).

or...

Just don't go over the annual limits of $14,000 per person if you are single or $28,000 ($14,000 from each) if you are a married couple. If you and your spouse each give 100 people $14,000 each, you could easily give $2.8 Million away a year and not take the tax hit.

I am not sure about this, perhaps there is a CPA or Tax Attorney on these forums that might be able to go into more detail.

One thing I do know is that you run the very real risk of having them audited by the IRS. It will raise a red flag with them if they see that the recipient suddenly got a large chunk of money.

Paying off loans like that still counts against the annual exclusion amount of $14,000 ($28,000 married couple).  The only way around that is to pay for someone's medical or education expenses and the catch there is you have to make payment directly to the institution or provider.

Some good news is that while the $14,000 annual exclusion stays the same in 2014 the life time exclusion raises to $5.34 million on January 1st.  Double that if you are a married couple and agree to do what is called gift splitting.

Good advice to enter into an agreement BEFORE the drawing if you want to give shares of your win to family and friends.  You have to be able to prove to the IRS that there was an agreement in place BEFORE the drawing to split any winnings.  The have been multiple court cases where the IRS sued the winner for gift tax, and in some cases won, because the person could not prove conclusively that there was an agreement to share before the drawing.  If you gve shares after the drawing that it considered a cash gift and is subject to gift tax.

I have been told that the IRS looks particularly hard at winners who split a jackpot between more than husband and wife (no gift tax between spouses unless one of you is not a US citizen).

If you don't have an agreement you can give away $5.34 in 2014 before any gift tax kicks in if you don't mind using your lifetime exclusion. That is still a lot of money to share!

Those who care about the IRS/law, follow the law, report the over the limit payments and pay the needed taxes.  Those who don't care about the law, take money out of their bank accounts, give the cash to their families with a note to hide it under the mattress or they'll pay most of it in taxes, and that's it.  The latter would claim they blew it all at indian casinos and partying, if anything comes of it, which I serioulsy doubt.  I seriously doubt the cat has a fifth leg.

Inaccurate advisal.

State Lotteries allow more then one claimant on ticket wins. Its a Primary contact and all others are listed with percentage amounts . The IRS does NOT force a winner to show proof prior to the win date that an agreement was in place. The winners need only show the win form and all members as listed.

Consult with a tax attorney for proper administrations of any gifted funds....

Raised! $586 mil

This would be my thought..... to help out family and friends, buy or start a business,   with them on the payroll and give them "perks" like CEO have.

"Corporate"...education, trips, condos, cars, retirement and health benefits.

max out whatever tax benefits that you can from the business.

Corporate bigwigs makes as much if not more on the perks and benefits, then they do from the paycheck.

Over the years with the companies that I have work for, I have seen a lot of "Deadwood" on the payroll balance sheet !! some even put their time in

at the office...... but most were paid to stay away.(owner's wife, brothers, sister)

With the jackpot this BIG"..... you'll need a few tax write offs. 

I'm renting ($1) my dream until the drawing, hoping my "long shot" comes in!!

The Jackpot is growing!

Well that sucks. I just got my Masters degree and can't Find work in my field. My friends are struggling as well I was gonna pay off their student loans if I won

Bigger jackpot now, should hit $600 mil before the drawing tomorrow.

Wait 8 days and you may hear that Santa was seen over northern Ohio. The advertised jackpot has to go over $656 million before MM officials will claim they've set a new record. Based on the curent cash/annuity ratio it needs to be over $878 million to set a real record. It will take some serious hysteria for that to happen by tomorrow night.

You can give as many gifts valued at $14,000 or less as you want to. Until the drawing, any ticket you buy is worth a lot less than that, so all you have to do is give people shares in the ticket(s). Of course the IRS is going to want proof, so you'll need to be able to document the gift.

The IRS might be fussy, but I know there have been at least a couple of cases where judges were more cooperative about accepting whatever proof  winners were able to offer. Figuring the majority of winners  don't set up trusts, partnerships, or corporations before winning I'll *assume* that those winners had nothing that was 100% conclusive, and that an affidavit describing the gifts you will make as soon as you purchase the ticket(s) is likely to suffice.

It might not break the record by tomorrow, but I'm sure it will, come this Friday for Sure.

I predict it'll be over the Billion Dollar mark on or about time for the Christmas Eve drawing.

Dreamer,

A gift is a gift. I've never had occasion to  find out, but since you can pay for somebody's medical and educational expenses without incurring a gift tax it's possible that you can also pay off loans for medical and educational expenses.

First of all it isn't accurate that all state lotteries will allow multiple claimants.

I stand by what I said.  The most recent case is Dickerson v Commissioner where a Waffle House waitress was given a lottery ticket as a gift before the drawing (so the value of the gift was the price of the ticket), that ticket won, and she turned around and tried to split the ticket with family members giving herself 49% share.  They formed a corporation to share the ticket.  The court found there was no proof that there was any agreement in place before the drawing that the members would share any lottery wins and she ended up getting a bill for gift tax.  The tax court used criteria such as if there was a requirement that each family member buy lottery tickets, was there a pattern to purchases, and was there a predetermined formula used to determine the percentage each person received.

Right. Group wins don't require formal agreements before buying the ticket. It's nice, but not required.

In single payee states, they can form a partnership for the group, after the win, but before the claim, so each person can get his own share of the winnings.

Other states like CA will do multiple payee for group ownership claims, partnership not needed.

The Waffle house case had a few differences from normal partnership or trust claims:

- she was given the winning ticket by the customer, she did not buy it, and was deemed to have not acted on behalf of the group

- she formed an S Corp instead of a Trust, and some other complications that caused the ruling in favor of the IRS

I pray God's protection and wisdom over the winner(s).

You don't have to have a formal agreement in place before you win but if you are forced into tax court you will need to prove that the intent to share was there before the drawing.  The court has used a pretty consistent set of criteria to determine if a gift was made or not.

It's great having tax and finance savvy people on this forum.  Thanks for your input - you never know if one of us might need it.

Caveat Emptor...with that kind of money, one can afford the best tax accountant/lawyer/financial advisor. Kind of dangerous to listen to faceless people on the internet.

You can still pay off their student loans as long as you pay Sallie Mae or whomever directly and do not give the student the money directly. Ditto with medical bills. Completely exempt as long as you pay the medical facility directly.

Sorry, but this is not really true. Perhaps in your state is the exception. But the IRS does not require you to "prove" you had an agreement to split the winnings ahead of time. All they have to do is claim the jackpot together and split the jackpot together. If they try to split the winnings AFTER the claim is when there's a problem and the lifetime gift tax goes into effect.

Doing this will land you in court or jail. You cannot give your family money to start a business outside of the gift allowance unless either you have a partnership in the business or you charge them interest. And interest can't be a ridiculously low number either, it has to be at current permissable rates otherwise it's deemed as a gift and counts towards your lifetime exclusion or the yearly $14,000 per person. 

You cannot hire a family member into your business and pay them an inflated salary either, otherwise it's considered a gift. For example, let's say you bought a McDonald's franchise and hired one family member to be the manager and another to be the cashier. You are not allowed to pay related-to-you-cashier $20/hr or whatever because that would be considered to be an inflated salary that is much more than industry standard and will be considered a gift. Ditto with paying the manager $100k/year.

I've said this before, when you win or otherwise come into a large sum of money, you become the IRS' b*tch. They go over everything you do with a fine tooth comb. Why give them a bigger reason to take more of your money than you've already given them. Almost every thing that can be tried has, and I have yet to hear them losing a single court case they've brought against a lottery winner. In the end they get their money with fees and penalties tacked on.

Again, this is inaccurate. That waitress never bought the ticket, a regular customer (who was a trucker I believe) gave her the ticket. He always bought tickts and gave the waitresses the tickets as their tips. She was sued by her fellow coworkers because they claimed there was a verbal agreement that if ever they won they would split it. She said she was never in that agreement with them. Other than the word of the fellow waitresses, who might be seen to have a motive to lie, they could not prove that she had any arrangement with her. The ticket was in her possession, not theirs. IF she had wanted to split the money with them, she could have. She did not. She wanted it all for herself. The IRS has absolutely nothing to do with that lawsuit or that part of the story. 

Nxt, she then tried to get around the gift tax laws by forming a company on which her relatives could draw a 'salary' for doing absolutely nothing. She could not prove what the business did or what her employee/relatives did and that's why she had to fork over the taxes. It had absolutely nothing at all to do with her not having an agreement in place or not with her family members prior to the win, and everything to do with her trying to get around the gift tax laws. The IRS went after her for giving them what amounted to a monetary gift that she had not claimed on her taxes. She tried to claim that it wasn't a gift, it was their salaries, but she could not make that case because she had no real evidence other than forming the business to prove it was an actual operational business. THAT's why she lost. Absolutely nothing to do with her not being able to split the JP at the time of the win. She hadn't wanted to split it with them.

This is simply not true. First of all, once you split the JP with someone, at the time of the claim, that intent is pretty darn clear. Second. Why would you be going to tax court? Unless you do not pay the taxes, you have no reason to go to tax court. The IRS doesn't care if that JP gets split 5 ways as long as you pay them. 

If you don't pay, you get audited, the auditor then tells you how much is owed and gives you a date to make payment. IF you don't make that payment THEN you are taken to court. There are a lot of steps between winning and being taken to court, and as long as you pay the taxes, it doesn't happen. You have to seriously and flagrantly break tax laws to go straight to court or get arrested. And unless you're Al Capone, chances are, it won't get to that point. 

It's not a gift if the parties claim together. It's only a gift if the money is tried to get divied out after the fact. At that point it doesn't matter if you intended to share it with them...unless you have seriously compelling evidence why it's a split and not a gift. But again...that is AFTER the fact. If that money hits your bank account and you THEN try to split it with someone, THAT'S the time you're up a creek without a paddle trying to prove what your intent was.

You misinterpreted what I said............ I said (legally) maximize your tax advantage.

I did not say anything about paying a million dollars or excessive wages"

Believe it or not there are companies and corporations out there that do pay benefits and perks.

like matching your 401 K dollar for dollar or fully funded pension,

use of corporate housing.......that just happens to be on the Hilton Head Island

or a penthouse a New York City,

Company car, Company paid major medical health and dental. 

clothing allowance, educational reimbursement, on and on.

IF you were drawing a good salary and had all these things taken care, as part

of your empoyment pakage ...would you feel like you won the lottery? compared to the job you have now"

The key here is to legally maximize your options".....with several CPAs and tax attorneys to benefit and help family and friends,

Good luck !