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Now that I think about it.You have a better chance hitting a million with cash4Life then Powerball. I play cash4Life one or two days a week. I play four lines non-duplicates. I hand select cash balls 01 and 04. I let the computer choose the other two cash balls. Tonight I have cashballs 01, 02, and 04 2x's.
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Quote: Originally posted by MsBee18 on Jun 26, 2020
Now that I think about it.You have a better chance hitting a million with cash4Life then Powerball. I play cash4Life one or two days a week. I play four lines non-duplicates. I hand select cash balls 01 and 04. I let the computer choose the other two cash balls. Tonight I have cashballs 01, 02, and 04 2x's.
You do have a better chance of hitting a million dollars with C4L than you do with PB.
It's 11 million to 1 odds with PB vs 7.2 million to 1 odds with C4L. The guy in NY that recently hit one first place C4L prize and three second place prizes won $10,000 a week for life - or $520,000 a year. Yes, over many years his winnings would add up to be multiple millions. Depending upon the players age at the time of the win makes a huge difference with how they'd want take the prize. It's a lot to think about.
If he took the lump sum option, then he'd have won over a million dollars. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by Concord on Jun 22, 2020
There could be a very good chance 'these days' that they might not pay what you are expecting. What DELotteryPlyr posted should make anyone think about the situation. Also, you have no idea how many others could be playing the same set of numbers ... granted the 'odds' are probably low but one or two more winning tickets may just be the killer for what you thought you had won.
Just a suggestion to put winning a 'second place' lottery prize more in your favor. Play the Cash4Life for an easier way to win $1 million dollars. I say 'easier' because of the better odds for a 'second place' win.
A few weeks ago the lucky winner in NY that had their numbers covered four times with each of the Cash Balls got a dream come true.
This is what I also did ... I was doing this exact same thing before the Cash4Life went daily ... after it went daily I adjusted back to two lines with one odd and one even Cash Ball ... in my case I now play the 2 and 3 Cash Balls.
I now have a 50% chance of hitting the first prize of $7 million and one second prize of $1 million or if I miss the Cash Ball ... I will still get $2 million. With my age I would go for the cash money in the bank and not take a chance that the money would not be there sometime in the future.
Now here is the interesting part ... with the odds of Mega Millions, Powerball and Cash4Life for a 'second place' win.
First of all ... with only four Cash Balls, your odds are much better that you might actually hit the first prize of $7 million compared with over twenty Mega Millions and Powerball numbers. Even playing only two Cash Balls, as I mentioned earlier ... gives you a 50% chance on that happening.
However, I am really talking about the odds on winning the 'second prize' ... this is where it gets interesting. These are the 'second prize' odds for Cash4Life, Mega Millions and Powerball.
Cash4Life - 2nd Prize: 7,282,018
Mega Millions - 2nd Prize: 12,607,306
Powerball - 2nd Prize: 11,688,054
However, the Cash4Life 2nd prize odds seem to be even better than what the game officials post. Get a lottery odds calculator with an online search and with 5 out of 60 numbers needed to win the 2nd prize ... you will get these odds. This must be a 'lottery odds calculator' and not a 'regular' type calculator.
The odds I get for a 2nd prize win with Cash4Life are 5,461,512 ... a very big drop more in a player's favor.
... and as I mentioned earlier, with only four Cash Balls ... if you only play 2 out of 4 Cash Balls, you may win both first and second prizes.
Of course it's all up to 'Lady Luck' in the end.
...
Here's a little food for thought with regard to C4L payouts...
If I played the same line five times with the same Cashball and I matched all six numbers, theoretically the lump sum payout would be 35 million dollars. (7 million per line) But I doubt they could cover that amount as they probably dont have that much money set aside in the prize pool. So it's very likely they'd pay far less than that, but who knows how much they'd be willing to pay!!
Now... what if I didn't take the lump sum and wanted $5000 a day for life. (because I played the same winning line five times) They could cover that amount because that's $35,000 per week or $1,825,000 per year. Even at my advanced age, the annuity option would be pretty tempting. Then again, I might not even get the option...they'd probably say there is no lump sum option available and that they'd only pay out on the annuity option.
Lots to think about here and a guy could get himself into an interesting situation.... I'd love to know how being in that interesting situation actually feels.
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jun 29, 2020
Here's a little food for thought with regard to C4L payouts...
If I played the same line five times with the same Cashball and I matched all six numbers, theoretically the lump sum payout would be 35 million dollars. (7 million per line) But I doubt they could cover that amount as they probably dont have that much money set aside in the prize pool. So it's very likely they'd pay far less than that, but who knows how much they'd be willing to pay!!
Now... what if I didn't take the lump sum and wanted $5000 a day for life. (because I played the same winning line five times) They could cover that amount because that's $35,000 per week or $1,825,000 per year. Even at my advanced age, the annuity option would be pretty tempting. Then again, I might not even get the option...they'd probably say there is no lump sum option available and that they'd only pay out on the annuity option.
Lots to think about here and a guy could get himself into an interesting situation.... I'd love to know how being in that interesting situation actually feels.
G5 ... you would be wasting your money doing what you posted. There is only 'one top prize winner' per draw ... but there can be more than one winner for the 2nd prize ... up to five before the money starts to be split up.
You would not get any extra money at all ... if I read the game rules right. If you have 4 or 5 winning tickets with the 'same' Cash Ball ... they will still only pay $7 million for the first prize or one '$1000 a day' prize.
A player should 'never' play the same set of numbers with the 'same' Cash Ball ... so a player should never play more than four tickets with the same numbers, covering the Cash Balls ... which also saves money in the end.
This from the NJ Lottery:
a. For any Drawing, if there is more than one (1) Top Prize Winning Ticket sold, then the Top Prize for
each Winning Ticket shall be paid on a Pari-Mutuel basis.
b. For any Drawing, if there are more than five (5) Winning Tickets, then the value of each Second
Level Prize shall be paid on a Pari-Mutuel basis, such that all Winning Tickets share a fixed liability
cap established by the Party Lotteries.
c. In the event that any single Drawing should produce more than seven (7) Top Prizewinners and
at least one (1) Second Level Prizewinner, then both the Top Prize and Second Level Prize
become Pari-Mutuel Prizes, and all Top Prize and Second Level Prizewinners will share the total
combined Prize pool for both Prize levels. The total combined Prize pool shared equally among
all Top Prize and Second Level Prize Prizewinners, under this scenario, is as established by the
Party Lotteries.
... so a player has to hope they are the only one playing those numbers. Only 'one' top prize winner and up to five '2nd prize' winners. Buying more than four tickets with the same numbers doesn't seem to be a wise thing to do ... and also a 'waste' of money.
What I am not sure about is the $7 million (1st Prize) and the $1 million (2nd Prize) Cash Option ... it used to be based on a 20 year calculation. Are those cash figures still the same? ... with less lottery playing ???
That's why I would like to know what the winner in NY is getting paid for the four winning tickets they had in May ... or got paid if they already went to lottery headquarters.
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Just to add to my last post ... being that the NY winner won by themselves ... they either won $10 million dollars total in cash ... $7 million + $3 million for cash or they have $1,000 a day and $3,000 a week paid annually.
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Quote: Originally posted by Concord on Jun 30, 2020
G5 ... you would be wasting your money doing what you posted. There is only 'one top prize winner' per draw ... but there can be more than one winner for the 2nd prize ... up to five before the money starts to be split up.
You would not get any extra money at all ... if I read the game rules right. If you have 4 or 5 winning tickets with the 'same' Cash Ball ... they will still only pay $7 million for the first prize or one '$1000 a day' prize.
A player should 'never' play the same set of numbers with the 'same' Cash Ball ... so a player should never play more than four tickets with the same numbers, covering the Cash Balls ... which also saves money in the end.
This from the NJ Lottery:
a. For any Drawing, if there is more than one (1) Top Prize Winning Ticket sold, then the Top Prize for
each Winning Ticket shall be paid on a Pari-Mutuel basis.
b. For any Drawing, if there are more than five (5) Winning Tickets, then the value of each Second
Level Prize shall be paid on a Pari-Mutuel basis, such that all Winning Tickets share a fixed liability
cap established by the Party Lotteries.
c. In the event that any single Drawing should produce more than seven (7) Top Prizewinners and
at least one (1) Second Level Prizewinner, then both the Top Prize and Second Level Prize
become Pari-Mutuel Prizes, and all Top Prize and Second Level Prizewinners will share the total
combined Prize pool for both Prize levels. The total combined Prize pool shared equally among
all Top Prize and Second Level Prize Prizewinners, under this scenario, is as established by the
Party Lotteries.
... so a player has to hope they are the only one playing those numbers. Only 'one' top prize winner and up to five '2nd prize' winners. Buying more than four tickets with the same numbers doesn't seem to be a wise thing to do ... and also a 'waste' of money.
What I am not sure about is the $7 million (1st Prize) and the $1 million (2nd Prize) Cash Option ... it used to be based on a 20 year calculation. Are those cash figures still the same? ... with less lottery playing ???
That's why I would like to know what the winner in NY is getting paid for the four winning tickets they had in May ... or got paid if they already went to lottery headquarters.
...
Thanks for your post. I've been looking for the official rules for C4L on The NY Lottery's website but I didn't have any luck finding them there. I should have been looking on New Jersey's website because NJ is the flagship lottery for C4L. The drawings are held in Jersey.
Here's a question: (not that I think it will ever actually happen, but theoretically it's possible) What if there were two top prize winners in the same drawing, but they were in twodifferent states? What happens then? Does it become Pari-Mutuel? My guess is that it does become Pari-Mutuel as I would think all the states pool their money in the same prizepool. I would think too that it would be more likely that multiple top prize winners would happen across multiple states as opposed to both being located in the same state. But who knows??? If it ever happened (either way) it sure would be a fluke!
On a different but related topic, I have Gail Howard's Smart Luck software installed on my laptop. It's got a lottery odds calculator so I used it for C4L. It eventually confirmed the same odds listed on the back of a C4L play slip. If you make a mistake with it (like I did before I decided to follow the instructions on the Help Panel) I got a result of 5.2 million to 1 odds for second place. So perhaps when you used an online calculator you made the same mistake using it that I made using Gail Howard's software?
I've been doing a little thinking about that guy in NY... As far as I know, the Lottery offices have not re-opened. It could be the player mailed his ticket to them (IMHO he's absolutely bonkers if he did that) and they've very quietly paid him without all the fanfare. Why would they (The NY Lottery) do that? Well, while it'd be great publicity for The NY Lottery, the whole thing is a bit complicated and if they didnt pay out like everyone expects they should have, I think they wouldn't want that kind of story in the press. it could get messy for them... but then I dont have a clue what they have or have not done. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by Concord on Jun 30, 2020
Just to add to my last post ... being that the NY winner won by themselves ... they either won $10 million dollars total in cash ... $7 million + $3 million for cash or they have $1,000 a day and $3,000 a week paid annually.
...
Just to add a little to what you wrote;
$1,000 a day and $3,000 a week equals $10,000 a week and $520,0000 per year. G5
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Been thinking about that May 17th big winner in NY a little more.
He's even more savvy than I initially thought. My guess is he played four games on one play slip which produced one ticket from the lottery terminal with four lines on it. The only number different on each line was the Cashball. (Yes, he could have used four play slips, each with a different Cashball, which would have produced four tickets with one line on them, but I dont think he did that. That's something I wouldn't do anyway)
I think the guy did it like he did because he was aware of the rule that says there can only be one top prize winner per drawing. That's pretty smart if you ask me. Who reads the official rules?? Who does that?? I sure dont. Never even bothered to read 'em for any online lottery game I've ever played!!
But thanks to these forums here at The Lottery Post, I now know the rules for C4L. But just C4L. I aint readin' that crap for any other games I play. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jun 30, 2020
Been thinking about that May 17th big winner in NY a little more.
He's even more savvy than I initially thought. My guess is he played four games on one play slip which produced one ticket from the lottery terminal with four lines on it. The only number different on each line was the Cashball. (Yes, he could have used four play slips, each with a different Cashball, which would have produced four tickets with one line on them, but I dont think he did that. That's something I wouldn't do anyway)
I think the guy did it like he did because he was aware of the rule that says there can only be one top prize winner per drawing. That's pretty smart if you ask me. Who reads the official rules?? Who does that?? I sure dont. Never even bothered to read 'em for any online lottery game I've ever played!!
But thanks to these forums here at The Lottery Post, I now know the rules for C4L. But just C4L. I aint readin' that crap for any other games I play. G5
If the player from NY did buy four 'separate' tickets ... that was the right thing to do, never put all four lines on one ticket ... it could cost you more in taxes.
Now the player in NY got real lucky and all his numbers came out for that draw, so all tickets would be taxed with the large prizes won ... but suppose only 4 regular white balls came out. Having four out of five regular balls will pay $500 per ticket and one ticket with the Cash Ball will pay $2500.
So with four separate tickets ... you pay tax on the $2500 win only ... and the three $500 winning tickets should be tax free. You can cash those $500 tickets anytime with no record. I would cash them on three different days at three different places.
You really don't have to do that but if you really want to be on the safe side ... there should be 'no connection' to cashing the $2500 ticket that will be taxed.
I always buy separate tickets when possible for any game ... you never know when a small hit that would be normally 'tax free' could end up being taxed with more game lines on the ticket ... since you will pay on the 'total' amount of money won for that one ticket.
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"On a different but related topic, I have Gail Howard's Smart Luck software installed on my laptop. It's got a lottery odds calculator so I used it for C4L. It eventually confirmed the same odds listed on the back of a C4L play slip. If you make a mistake with it (like I did before I decided to follow the instructions on the Help Panel) I got a result of 5.2 million to 1 odds for second place. So perhaps when you used an online calculator you made the same mistake using it that I made using Gail Howard's software?"
Not to argue on the C4L odds. I know what they say for the 2nd prize odds but it is very simple math.
Use the odds calculator here at LP ... there are 60 numbers and you need 5 to win the 2nd prize. Do a quick search for other 'lottery odds calculators' ... try 3 or 4 different ones.
It's 5,461,512 ... try the LP calculator with other games, they all seem to come out correctly. I have no idea how those other C4L odds are shown ... it's very simple lottery calculator math ... 60 numbers total / 5 numbers needed to win the second prize.
I will continue to believe what the calculator shows me ... some others also try the LP calculator with C4L and MM and PB and any game. .... total numbers in the game and what is needed to win the 2nd prize.
No Cash Balls, Mega Balls or Power Balls need to be included for the 2nd prize.
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Quote: Originally posted by Concord on Jun 30, 2020
"On a different but related topic, I have Gail Howard's Smart Luck software installed on my laptop. It's got a lottery odds calculator so I used it for C4L. It eventually confirmed the same odds listed on the back of a C4L play slip. If you make a mistake with it (like I did before I decided to follow the instructions on the Help Panel) I got a result of 5.2 million to 1 odds for second place. So perhaps when you used an online calculator you made the same mistake using it that I made using Gail Howard's software?"
Not to argue on the C4L odds. I know what they say for the 2nd prize odds but it is very simple math.
Use the odds calculator here at LP ... there are 60 numbers and you need 5 to win the 2nd prize. Do a quick search for other 'lottery odds calculators' ... try 3 or 4 different ones.
It's 5,461,512 ... try the LP calculator with other games, they all seem to come out correctly. I have no idea how those other C4L odds are shown ... it's very simple lottery calculator math ... 60 numbers total / 5 numbers needed to win the second prize.
I will continue to believe what the calculator shows me ... some others also try the LP calculator with C4L and MM and PB and any game. .... total numbers in the game and what is needed to win the 2nd prize.
No Cash Balls, Mega Balls or Power Balls need to be included for the 2nd prize.
...
I just tried the Smart Luck odds calculator again...
You're correct, if you don't include the Cashball (use a zero as the number of bonus numbers), then the odds are displayed as 5,461,512 to 1.
When I used 1 as the number of bonus numbers (which to calculate the odds to win a second place prize I should not have done because to win a second place prize doesn't require a player to have the Cashball) then the calculator shows 7,282,016 to 1 odds. That matches the back of NY's play slip.
I'm guessing that the NY Lottery is aware of the fact that the odds to win a second place prize aren't correct on their playslip. Because I've never seen another states C4L playslip, the printed odds for a second place win could be correct elsewhere.
The odds the Smart Luck calculator displays using a 1 as the bonus number for all other C4L lower tier prizes matches the NY playslip. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jun 30, 2020
Thanks for your post. I've been looking for the official rules for C4L on The NY Lottery's website but I didn't have any luck finding them there. I should have been looking on New Jersey's website because NJ is the flagship lottery for C4L. The drawings are held in Jersey.
Here's a question: (not that I think it will ever actually happen, but theoretically it's possible) What if there were two top prize winners in the same drawing, but they were in twodifferent states? What happens then? Does it become Pari-Mutuel? My guess is that it does become Pari-Mutuel as I would think all the states pool their money in the same prizepool. I would think too that it would be more likely that multiple top prize winners would happen across multiple states as opposed to both being located in the same state. But who knows??? If it ever happened (either way) it sure would be a fluke!
On a different but related topic, I have Gail Howard's Smart Luck software installed on my laptop. It's got a lottery odds calculator so I used it for C4L. It eventually confirmed the same odds listed on the back of a C4L play slip. If you make a mistake with it (like I did before I decided to follow the instructions on the Help Panel) I got a result of 5.2 million to 1 odds for second place. So perhaps when you used an online calculator you made the same mistake using it that I made using Gail Howard's software?
I've been doing a little thinking about that guy in NY... As far as I know, the Lottery offices have not re-opened. It could be the player mailed his ticket to them (IMHO he's absolutely bonkers if he did that) and they've very quietly paid him without all the fanfare. Why would they (The NY Lottery) do that? Well, while it'd be great publicity for The NY Lottery, the whole thing is a bit complicated and if they didnt pay out like everyone expects they should have, I think they wouldn't want that kind of story in the press. it could get messy for them... but then I dont have a clue what they have or have not done. G5
Here's a wild thought about the NY May 17th C4L big winner; What if they dont know they won? What if they misplaced that ticket? And that's the reason why they haven't come forward. There's a second prize ticket sold in Orlando Florida for the January 25th C4L drawing that has yet to be claimed.
We're all assuming the player knows they won and that they have the ticket safely stashed away somewhere waiting for NY's district offices to re-open. While I highly doubt that the player is unaware of the win, I sure hope that's the case! G5
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jun 30, 2020
I just tried the Smart Luck odds calculator again...
You're correct, if you don't include the Cashball (use a zero as the number of bonus numbers), then the odds are displayed as 5,461,512 to 1.
When I used 1 as the number of bonus numbers (which to calculate the odds to win a second place prize I should not have done because to win a second place prize doesn't require a player to have the Cashball) then the calculator shows 7,282,016 to 1 odds. That matches the back of NY's play slip.
I'm guessing that the NY Lottery is aware of the fact that the odds to win a second place prize aren't correct on their playslip. Because I've never seen another states C4L playslip, the printed odds for a second place win could be correct elsewhere.
The odds the Smart Luck calculator displays using a 1 as the bonus number for all other C4L lower tier prizes matches the NY playslip. G5
Thanks for rechecking your calculations again. I didn't think to mention that a '0' should always be there for the 2nd prize only ... Cash Balls or 'bonus numbers' have nothing to do with the 2nd prize.
It's very simple, pick 5 winning numbers out of 60 and you win $ 1 million cash or weekly checks ... unless you also have the Cash Ball ... then it gets better.
I have never seen the 5,461,512 odds posted anywhere at any lottery site ... it's always 7,282,016 !
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Quote: Originally posted by Concord on Jul 2, 2020
Thanks for rechecking your calculations again. I didn't think to mention that a '0' should always be there for the 2nd prize only ... Cash Balls or 'bonus numbers' have nothing to do with the 2nd prize.
It's very simple, pick 5 winning numbers out of 60 and you win $ 1 million cash or weekly checks ... unless you also have the Cash Ball ... then it gets better.
I have never seen the 5,461,512 odds posted anywhere at any lottery site ... it's always 7,282,016 !
...
I too have never seen odds for a C4L second place posted as anything other than 7,282,016.
With regard to whether or not PowerBall would pay out a second place prize of 10 million dollars for a set of five identical lines with the Powerplay option added, I doubt they'd do it. I have to believe that somewhere tucked away in the official rules there's language to the effect that it becomes Pari-Mutuel if certain conditions are met.
I do think however, that they would pay out for a third place win. That's because the set prize for third place is $50,000. So if I bought five identical lines and matched 4 numbers and the PowerBall and had also bought the Powerplay option, I could win a maximum of $2,500,000. It'd take a 10x Powerplay to do that, but it could happen. (Not that I'm holding my breath... The 10x Powerplay number has only happened three time since they introduced the Powerplay option) With a 2x Powerplay number I'd win $500,000, $750,000 with a 3x, and $1,000,000 with a 4x etc.
The odds on a third place win are 913,130 to 1, so maybe I shouldn't be playing for a second place win as much as I should be playing/hoping for a third place win. IMHO 913,130 to 1 odds to win a minimum of $500,000 is worthy of my 15 dollar ticket. G5
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I didn't see it until this morning but something interesting happened with PowerBall on Wednesday night. The PowerPlay number was 10x.
That's only the fourth time that's ever happened since the current matrix was adopted in October of 2015. There's a reason for that. The reason is because there is just one 10x ball while there are many 2x and 3x balls, some 4x balls and a few 5x balls. And.... should the jackpot grow to be more than $150 million, the lone 10x ball is removed from play. So we wont and dont get to see the 10X PowerPlay number get drawn very often.
The paragraph above should provide the answer to the title of this thread - "Would They Pay It? Can They Pay It?"
They remove the 10x ball from play after a jackpot reaches $150 million because the jackpot has grown sufficiently enough to attract additional ticket sales. That means there will be additional lower tier prize winners, and as the jackpot rolls, tickets sales will increase again and on and on. If the 10x PowerPlay ball was is in play and it actually was drawn, they probably would not have enough money in the lower tier prize pool to pay all of the lower tier winners. Especially if some Smart Alec player like me buys five identical lines and also bought The PowerPlay and matched five numbers. How could they pay all of the lower tier prize winners when they dont have enough money in the lower tier prize pool to do it?? They cant do it, so they wont do it. Instead they'll invoke the Pari-Mutuel rule that's buried in PowerBall's official rules and make all set prize (lower tier) pay out's less than their advertised amounts.
They're not like Dumb Alec me. They think of everything! They cover all the bases.... G5