In reading the Powerball lottery website, I noticed that they are now capping the amount a jackpot can grow if no one wins. Making it step up by only $25 million seemed very odd to me, as you would think they would want to let it run, since larger jackpots attract more crackpots players.
Talking this over with a friend, I see their wisdom. The excess cash is spread out to the players who match 5 white balls when there is a jackpot winner for that draw (they call it the Match 5 Bonus Prize) which means more people sharing the wealth once the wealth becomes incomprehensible.
And really, $177.3 million is incompressible. Apparently, even for the Powerball folks, as the banner above, which I made last night, shows them saying the cash payout would be $188.2 million. Now they’re saying $177.3 million.
No matter, you wanna know how to win Powerball, guaranteed. For that secret, follow me to the extended post…
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
How can you win the Powerball lottery, guaranteed? Simple, buy every possible combination of numbers. Usually this would be counter-productive, you would spend more in tickets than your winnings, but once the after-tax cash pay-out pot reaches a certain point, say $146,107,962, you’d be in the money.
Why $146,107,962? Because according to Powerball, there are exactly 1:146,107,962 chances to win. Or 146,107,962 possible number combinations. If the after-tax cash pay-out is say $147,107,962, you could invest $146,107,962 in buying every possible combination, and you’d be guaranteed to win, at the most $1 million cash.
Ahh.. now note that catch phrase “at the most”. What could spoil your plan to be filthy rich? If someone else picked the winning combo too. If they did, and say it was a lovely family from Oregon, then BAMB! You’re looking at a $73,053,981 loss.
Then again, if you have $146,107,962 in cash, why would you play the Powerball lottery to being with? Me, I’m just glad I won the South African lottery!
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
