NEW YORK — The next Mega Millions jackpot climbs to around US$1.25 billion in the United States, as Tuesday night’s draw went nowhere.
The prize will be one of the largest in US lottery history if won in the next draw on Friday.
However, don’t plan on entering a new tax bracket anytime soon. The odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot — no matter how big — are approximately 1 in 302.6 million. And the odds of winning a top prize for Powerball, which had an estimated jackpot of $95 million on Wednesday, are close to 1 in 292.2 million.
Due to the nearly impossible odds of winning big, experts point out that you shouldn’t spend all your money on lottery tickets. If you choose to gamble, it’s important to be aware of what you can afford, and perhaps consider other places to put your money, even if it’s just a few bucks at a time.
Lottery tickets are “not good investments,” Matthew Kovach, an assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s economics department, told The Associated Press last month.
“It’s not even investments… you’re always expected to lose money,” he pointed out.
There’s a long list of rare events that are more likely to happen than winning a lottery jackpot of such magnitude.
A common comparison is the odds of being struck by lightning once in your lifetime, which is about one in 15,300. Even if you were buying a lottery ticket for over 80 years – twice a week for Mega Millions and three times a week for Powerball — you’d be less likely to win than to be struck by lightning once in your life, added Syracuse University math professor Steven Diaz.
“You’re about four times more likely to die in a car accident on the trip to buy your ticket than to win the prize,” Kovach said.
Of course, the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries offer lower prizes, with the lowest starting at $2 and $4, respectively. For both games, the odds of winning a prize are approximately 1 in 24.
Winning the lottery has gotten harder over the past few years, which is why the prizes are getting bigger and bigger.
In 2015, the Powerball lottery increased the odds of winning from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million. Mega Millions followed two years later, increasing the odds of winning the top prize from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million.
When someone wins at games like Powerball or Mega Millions, they have two options: an annuity that is distributed over 29 years or a much smaller cash payout.
The estimated US$1.25 billion prize pool in Friday’s Mega Millions draw, for example, is the annuity option, and the cash value of that prize is almost half, or US$625.3 million. Despite this, most winners opt for a payout.
To this, we must also take into account the deductions in taxes.
The lottery has historically impacted the poorest, meaning those who can least afford to lose their money buy the most tickets, pointed out Lia Nower, professor and director of the Center for Gambling Studies. at Rutgers University, in an interview with the AP.
His biggest concern is that there are more people buying it every day, or two or three times a week, than buying a ticket, as the jackpot is approaching $1 billion.
A $2 ticket might not seem like a lot, but it can come in handy for those who regularly participate in the lottery over time. Alternative spending options could include opening an investment account that lets you invest in small amounts or buy partial shares, Kovach added.
“Really, it’s probably best to diversify through something like an index fund, but if you’re just starting out, I… (suggest putting it) in the stock market or something,” he said. “You will likely see a return over time.”
2023-08-03 09:34:52
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