Here in NY a ticket for Lotto gives me nearly 13 time the chance of a jackpot as a ticket for PB or MM, and the Lotto ticket is only $1, and the cash value of Lotto is also slightly better than it is for PB or MM. Based on that I figure each $1 million of the advertised jackpot for Lotto is the probabilistic equivalent of $26 million for PB or $65 million for MM. The current Lotto jackpot is $9.3 million, so comparable to a $242 million PB jackpot or $604 million for MM. Although I wouldn't play PB or MM at those levels, I figure $8 million is where Lotto would be an roundish $2 million after taxes. It's arbitrary, but that seems like a reasonable point to get in the game, unless PB or MM are a good bit bigger.
The 2nd place prize for NY Lotto builds just like the jackpot, so there can be a very wide variation in the prize amount, but the odds are always about 3 times as good as PB or MM. Factor in the cost of tickets, and the current 2nd places prize of about 235k is a better bet than PB. It's also comparable to a 2nd place MM prize of $3.5 million. Because the MM prize is most likely $2 million and fairly unlikely to be more than $3.5 million I see Lotto as a better bet at the moment. I'll also note that the wide variation in the 2nd place Lotto prize means the jackpot threshold that would get me started is a bit variable.
