Jst saw in news that the odd of hitting Jackpot is 1 in 180 millions. for sake of comparision, they say, the odd of one becoming  US president is 1 in 110 million & the odd of "you" being killed by Vending Machine is 1 in 212 millions !!! lmao ohh well, I will give a dollar shot, who knows...if you play, there s a chance, if you dont play, no chance at all :D

soul_survivor · Mar 29, 2012 11:15 PM

spend 173 millions, with this money you can buy all possible combinations of winning numbers- no matter what number will be drawn. And win 550 millions.. :)

ANS · Mar 29, 2012 11:38 PM

@ANS first you have ta have that much money... Second a man with that much money won't bother rather will invest and third if there are couple more winner u r screwed PS don't forget almost 35% goes to uncle sam....

goddamn · Mar 30, 2012 12:17 AM

@goddamn You're half right. Half a billion is not the prize amount if you want it in a lump sum; it's almost half of it, say around 390M. Now take 35% tax and you will have 136M. The math already looks bad; you spend 173M and you get 136M. That is, if nobody else wins; if there is another winner you have to split the cost. Now, to make it even more difficult, lottery rule doesn't allow one to buy more than a certain amount of tickets.

Kiddo · Mar 30, 2012 8:37 AM

After 35% tax, u will have 390 - 35% of 390 = 253.5 wow- profit of 80.5 million - not bad

serial · Mar 30, 2012 9:01 AM

but how you gonna play all those possible combinations? Lets say, a lottery machine can print 20 tickets per minute.... means 1200 tix per hour. 176000000/1200= 146700 hrs to print. Lets assume, you have 3 days to play If you start early and each store opens 24 hrs (just for the sake) means total hours to play..... 72 hrs... so, 146700/72 hrs = 2037 thats the number of machines you need to use 24 hrs a day for 3 days if you already have all betting slips ready. if you all all other overhead times associated.. then you have to employ 3000 people just to bet.  

kakakul · Mar 30, 2012 10:21 AM

lol.. instead of printing all these ticket - just transfer that 170 million to Lottery officials, and make an agreement that no matter what number will be drawn, you will be one winner. :) btw, it is just a joke.. thought it is plausible mathematically.. Yeah, definitely couple of other people will definitely win this jackpot tonight- considering this frenzyness and total number of tickets sold. And - it will also be a jackpot for state officials .. as it will bring huge tax money to their state..

ANS · Mar 30, 2012 11:18 AM

Take care all, I am going to buy few lucky tickets now that the payout is 640Millions. Wow what can I do with it? Lets see buy a million dollar house in each states? travel the world? Buy all fancy cars? buy lotsa gold? S C A R Y...  will just go back to work like as is and then slowing leave and live happily and I guess Travel... see places...go back home and help all the family mems, buy what is needed and invest properly. Because any money is not enough for we human being. I was happy making 4.25$ an hour.... We human!! Help the poor!

SanuG · Mar 30, 2012 2:23 PM

 Well said Mangale and Sanug

adhikari_bandhu · Mar 30, 2012 9:02 PM

 173 million is just an odd of winnig the jackpot, it's not actually the total number of combination. Like 20$  scratch off has a odd of 3.2 but every 3rd ticket is not a winner, so is with the mega million jackpot. If you wanna really do the math then, for every 1st number there is possibility of 56 number, second number 55 (coz the first number won't be repeated). third numbger 54. 4th number 53, 5th number 52 possible number. And for mega ball you have separete 46 times number of combination. so the total number of combination would be= (56*55*54*53*52)*46=21,085,384,320.. So you will have 21 billions of combination. By the way somebody in marryland got the winning ticket so, should not worry about it anymore :p Last edited: 31-Mar-12 02:33 AM

trust143_raj · Mar 31, 2012 2:32 AM

3 winners so far confirmed. good for them. I am back to work in a while.

kakakul · Mar 31, 2012 9:36 AM

@ Trust Raj, your calculation of Total number of combination is wrong !!! It is 1 in 175 mil (around) indeed, not your 21 billion & yes, you can be a GURANTEED winner if you play 175 mil of tickets with all possible combination. I think Lottery commission has certain rule about how many tickets one can play & more than that, it s not realistic to play 180 mil of tickets. For instance, if it takes 5 sec to fill 6 bubbles, you would need 28 days to fill 180 mil tickets & that will take 3 days to print tickets for 300 employee with 300 lotto machines  lol (rough calculation) Combinations is simple: [(56*55*54*53*52)/(5*4*3*2*1)]*46 = roughly 175 mil ....not 21 bil

soul_survivor · Mar 31, 2012 2:59 PM

 Winter is coming! 

Robb Stark · Mar 31, 2012 8:01 PM