Hey that $3 buys me the ability to daydream about my life as a multimillionaire for a couple days, before I crash back to reality slightly less satisfied than before!
The new jackpot for Wednesday's drawing would be the third highest in U.S. history and will keep growing until someone wins. Ticket buyers have a chance at $1 billion paid out in yearly increments or a $516.8 million one-time lump sum before taxes.
Because then you wouldn't get the people who rarely play to throw money in.
The bigger jackpots incentivize those who don't play for the "pennies" at less than 500 million. They actually reduced the odds of winning a few years ago for this exact reason.
Funny you say that. There’s about 300 million possible numbers so at $2 per ticket you only need to win over $600 million for the lottery to be plus EV. Factor in 37% tax (which is what Google says is the average rate, but may be different depending on state) you “only” need a jackpot of about 950 million to profit.