$476 million Mega Millions jackpot
 

An already absurd lottery jackpot has become a record lottery jackpot. Mega Millions, played in 42 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, did not have its $363 million jackpot paid out last night, meaning Friday's drawing will be for a chance to win a $476 million 26-year annuity (that's $18,307,692.31/year pre-tax) or $341 million, if you take the one-time cash payout.

I grew up with a father and a grandmother who always saw lotteries and scratch tickets as terrific and vaguely realistic opportunities to improve one's situation, so I naturally inherited their excitement. They would always randomly buy scratch tickets; I've only ever played for big jackpots like this, usually when the jackpot gets up around or over $300 million. I figure, if you're gonna win, win big.

Danielle and I have shot around ideas for what to do with the winnings, but I think ultimately, if we won, we'd be boring and modest about it for the most part but the one thing that motivates me to play is the idea that if I didn't want to work for the rest of my life, I wouldn't have to. It's not that I don't want to work, it's that I don't want work to be as important as living life. $476 million is enough that you can live as poorly or as richly as you want and, properly secured, likely for the rest of one's life.

Danielle's opinion, and I'm sure that of many on these boards, differs from mine. Some people worry that money would change them, and others worry that mo' money, mo' problems. In the back of my head, I understand those issues. But I'd rather have an opportunity to face those issues than never have it at all.

Have you been participating in lotteries? If not, why? Is this current jackpot enticing enough for you get involved?

I was not raised with lotteries and scratch tickets. I was raised to push them out of my head; your chances of winning are pretty much nil.

I wouldn't stop working if I did win. I think it's important to stay grounded and focus on reality. I probably wouldn't even buy anything brand new right away.

My fear in winning big money is that I lose sight of working and scrounging for money. There's a certain honor in having to work for your money and to value every penny. When you're collecting $18 million a year (gross), it's hard to keep your eye on every penny.

A lot of people want an "easier" life with a disgusting amount of money, but I really don't think it would be much easier unless you're incredibly clever about the whole thing.

I play Powerball when the jackpot gets high enough ($250-300m or higher). Its usually an office pool though.

I wouldn't stop working if I won the lottery, I'd just work less. Do volunteer work or something. Half of my winnings would immediately go into savings, the other half would be used to help family pay off debts and get myself into a decent house.

The problem people run into with the lottery is they get in over their heads with spending money and don't plan out for the future. They buy expensive cars and houses and blow all of the money up front, leaving themselves fucked for taxes and maintenance costs.

I've always viewed lotteries as mostly a "stupidity tax." It doesn't hurt to have a go every now and again but if tickets make up a notable part of your monthly budget then you're doing it wrong.

Also why does it matter if it's a massively huge payout? Honestly what does 400 million do for your life that 20 million wouldn't?

The stupid, stupid spending spree that nearly all lottery winners go on might last an extra month or two. People just aren't wired to deal with these sorts of large numbers in a rational way. For all that we tell ourselves "If I won I'd be really sensible and just sock it all away to collect interest", this sort of well-intentioned resolve melts away pretty fast when the decision actually comes up. Because gee whiz that's a lot of digits and I've always wanted a gold-plated monster truck just one indulgence I mean I'm a multimillionaire what's it gonna hurt?

It would probably be best for everyone if the maximum possible lottery payout was something like $20,000, which is big enough to sound enticing to the sort of hopeless schmucks who make a habit of playing the lotto but small enough to actually add to a budget without impulsively adding line items for DIAMOND CODPIECE and PRIVATE ZOO.

Additional Spam:
Fuck it, I don't even drive and I'd buy a gold-plated monster truck, that's just a natural human impulse

It actually makes the expected return on a $1 ticket almost $1.

What are the odds on that lottery then?

The odds on the National Lottery here are about 14m/1 so they cap the prize at £13m, the same with the European Version (Although the cap for that is a shade over £140m.

You'd struggle to spend $400m without a lot of imagination though, that's an astronomical amount of money for one person to suddenly receive. I certainly wouldn't work ever again if I won even a couple of million quid. I'd buy a house for half a million to live in, buy another to rent out for income then spunk a million up the wall on silly shit.

Well, let's compare.

UK's national lotto has you pick 6 (technically 7, but that seventh only applies if you get 5 of 6) out of 49, for odds of 13,983,816 to 1.

To win MegaMillions, you have to pick correct on both a 5 out of 56 draw and a 1 out of 46 draw, for odds of 175,711,536 to 1.

The odds are worse by a factor of 10, and from looking at both of their payout tables, the National Lottery is actually a lot more generous in terms of winning any sort of prize, as well.

They cap the number of times the jackpot can roll over, though, whereas MegaMillions (like PowerBall) increases the jackpot until there's a winner. It starts at $12 million, though, so it takes a while to hit these mind numbers, hence why people get excited every time it happens.

For me, since I usually do an office pool, its more money that we can split out among us. Seeing as the minimum amount only happens maybe twice a year, we only spend maybe $4 on powerball ($2/line.

I must resonate Sass's concern about how it can change you. Ultimately the responsibility of handling that much money without the financial know hows will just ruin you.

And of course, who can FORGET about those family members/friends/who have you demanding your payout to them. THIS usually the reason why everyone go pretty broke real fast. Its not the stupidity that gets them, but the TRYING TO BE A GOOD PERSON while they're at it is what gets them. Donating to an useless charity would be another good example. Disclaimer: Not all charities are useless but their motivations and non-transparency about funds is pretty questionable.

This is what I would do if I won:

YouTube Video

On the topic of having FAR TOO MUCH MONEY than you know what to do with... I imagine that if one of you guys won that much money, you could bring an envelope with $100,000 (or whatever) to EACH PERSON at the meet and still be the richest fucker on the forums. :3: Hell, you could probably BUY the meet house and we could have a perpetual gathering.

Here in Canada the lotteries seem to have comparable odds to the UK ones, and as such the jackpots don't get quite as large. However, 50 million is nothing to frown about. One of the main games involves picking 6 numbers out of 49, and the other is... I BELIEVE 7 out of 56 or something? I dunno, but it seems like winning money here is still way more plausible than the Powerball or anything like that. (That said, the odds are still pretty impossible so yeah.)

Something I've oft thought of :)

Buying the meet house (or a house nearby) would probably be on my list of things I would probably do if I won. SEE Y'ALL AT GFF NE MEET 2032~

(Jackpot's up to $540 million, with some speculating it could be near $600 million by the time the drawing happens tomorrow night.)

Meeee tooooo.

I'd buy that shit and the shit next door and make an underground tunnel with Indiana Jones to greet you at whichever end you enter from.

Holy shit, I just noticed that the two of you have matching signatures <3 <3 <3

Well hell, if we're talking about lottery fantasies, Imma call Scrooge McDuck's vault before anybody else does.

Also: just about the only way I can figure I could have endless amounts of money, without it breaking my head, is if I put it all immediately into some sort of trust for charity or something. It would be kind of cool to single-handedly build your own Susan G Komen foundation, but for something else because there's already one for breast cancer.

Children with ass cancer?

Rent dozens of public storage units to hold all of my shitty and generic used cars that I have modified with roll bars and saftey straps and reinforced bullshit. I will use these lame 90s automobiles to punish inconsiderate drivers. There will be no more slowing down on my part when you cut me off or pull out in front of me and drive super duper slow. My insurance can cover it. Super duper slow drivers get their spines fractured by rich assholes.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail right on the dot there. If I ever won the lottery I'd make damn sure no one knew about it, especially my folks. It's not that I want to be Scrooge McBitterson by choice, but my sister and I have both already carried our share of both our parents' load of "I'm old and you need to take care of me" bullshit in our early 20's. If either of us won the lottery we'll both just be dealing with a lifetime of leechers coming to us to be their problem solvers.

I guess that's the most realistic problem I'd have with the lottery; I wouldn't lose sight or who I am or what I do for a living, but I'd lose my sensibility to solve my own problems without money and inherit a boatload of problems just based on how needy my family are.

Although if I had to dream, it would be nice paying off all of my debts and start giving back to a community. And then traveling around the world. Maybe going to some countries just to learn the language. Travel through all the rural areas of Japan, backpacking from village to village in the countryside wandering through treasure trove of deliciousness. At some point though, I feel like Edmond Norton's character in The Italian Job; I'm not creative enough to know what to do with my own money or dream of what I really want... People like that (me) are better off without the money. I can discover a much more humbler journey through life in that sense.

I would lure you all into GFF Private Cruise. Then GFF Gilligan's Island. I naturally would be the millionaire.

I don't usually participate in this kind of thing. I don't think I've ever come across anyone who's won more than a tenner on the lottery and that's after spending years plugging away at it every week. Of course maybe if you pooled the money you would have spent every week into 52 entries for one draw a year and slightly improve your odds but even that doesn't seem to cut it for me, I'm too pragmatic. I'd also hate the short-lived celebrity of winning, and not just for the leeches that would inevitably follow.

Not that I don't entertain fantasies of winning. I always think I would cordon a large sum off into savings, give some to family/friends/charity and then spend the rest on securing myself somewhere to live and getting myself out of debt (student loans yay). However, I know I'd indulge some frivolous purchases. I do that on a much reduced scale anyway when I come in under budget for the month and suddenly want to spend money on all the things.