Powerball’s massive jackpot will rollover and increase after Saturday’s drawing produced no winning tickets, according to the game’s website.

The $1.4-billion jackpot now grows to $1.55 billion but remains the third-largest in Powerball’s history (the second largest was $1.586 billion in 2016).

The last time someone won the Powerball jackpot after the July 19 drawing for the $1.08 billion pot. The winning ticket then was sold in California.

      • kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Except he mentioned the chance part.

        It’s called a lottery, I think it’s generally understood that not everybody wins.

    • bss03@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Expected return calculation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_return there are likely better “bets” you can make. On top of that, even if the expected return is good, you have to take into account the Kelly Criterion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion which limits how much of your bankroll you want to spend on a longshot, and if that’s less than the cost of a single ticket, buying tickets is more likely to bankrupt you than for you to win.

      https://quantwolf.com/doc/powerball/powerball.html

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      After taxes you’d still come out less than a billionaire. But if a measley rich as fuck is good enough… He’ll I’ll probably kick a couple of bucks into the pot for the next drawing.

      • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mean, if someone spends $2 once in a while for the fun and daydreaming, it’s not really an idiot tax. I’ll probably buy a single ticket.

        • SilentStorms@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          For real. I buy a ticket occasionally just because it’s fun to think about what I’d do with the money for the few days before the draw. Worth the $2 in entertainment value. I’ll occasionally win $10 or something, which is a bonus. I fail to see the issue with people spending an inconsequential amount of money for funsies.

          It’s the people who spend hundreds on lottery tickets that are the problem. Even then, people with gambling problems aren’t idiots, they’re desperate people who are being taken advantage of by the gaming industry.

        • ubermeisters@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I completely agree.

          But most lotto ticket purchasers aren’t just buying them “here and there”.

          Try working a job that sells lotto tickets, then you’ll understand. It’s fucking sad as hell. More people than you would ever assume are pinning thier entire hopes and dreams on making it big without doing anything to earn it, while throwing away the present completely, along with any real chance of being content within thier means.

        • reallynotnick@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          When someone calls it an idiot tax they mean the actual $2 tickets themselves, not the winnings.

        • capital@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          “Idiot tax” doesn’t refer to the taxes taken from lotto winnings.

          It refers to the money wasted on the minute chance of winning. So minute that only stupid people pay it. Stupid tax.