Maybe it can go past 390 million in 2007. Id like for that to happen If I dont win it. Last time MA won was in 2004. I think were do again. I'll do my part by putting in $20.

Genome, it can go past it in Cash value if it rolls 1 time,

current record is $233,000,000 cash on  mar 6th , 2007

they are no doubt playing it safe, and will update the jackpot amount before draw again

, to maybe 200m plus cash by time of draw,  these kinds of sales, they Can't take a spot on guest to at lest 1 day of sales pass, to get a better idea

at 182.6M cash, ITS BIGGER THEN ANY POWERBALL jackpot!

powerball biggest cash jackpot to date was 177m cash, 

if it somehow avoids the best efforts by players 1 more time,

i have to break open my piggy bank and spend

, right now am trying to cap it at 20 bucks for this draw,  normaly i only spend 1 to 5 bucks thro lol

so what you guys normaly spend, LOL

I hope it goes out next draw. Some people become ticket fiends when a jackpot is as big as this one...I'm sure some have been enticed for weeks

to dream too much, then spend too much. I'll take a shot at it too - for $10. Good luck to anyone that plays.

I hope one day we see a member here hit jackpot in Mega Millions or Powerball.

sense i go by cash value records, here is what i found looking back

top mega millions jackpots in cash

#1 going down list

Annuity		Cash
Mega Millions Jackpot for Mar. 6, 2007    $390,000,000		$233,000,000

Mega Millions Jackpot for Aug. 31, 2007 $330,000,000		$194,000,000

Thats right, as of right now, its the 5th largest mm jackpot,  soon to be #4 no doubt, maybe even #3 by draw time, depends on how much it gets upped

however their is a error in my math, i think their was a larger jackpot mm back in early 2000? but i dont have the data that far back lol

ether way its top 5/6th atm

ah edited update, found it,
$363.0 million
May 9, 2000
2
The Big Game

however my data does not have the freaking cash value of it, however on a google search, i think it was around 180m cash going by news reports of 2 diff winners shares

so i indeed call the current jackpot the 5th largest cash jackpot in usa,  by draw time it be in top 4, so woot woot

Letit grow, letit grow, letit grow!

I wanna see it half a billion. Happy New Year everyone, good luck!

I was hoping it would won on Friday because now I'll to get tickets in the next drawing and my New Years Resolution is to not buy any more quick piggies.

You will.  Tuesday will be my day...positive thoughts

Wowoweewah...  I only got the last 2 numbers (1 white ball + Megaball for a $3 win), which wasn't bad considering I got back the $3 quick picks I bought! 

Now I'm gonna use my "winnings" to buy another for this Tuesday's draw! 

GOOD LUCK TO US ALL!!! BRING IT ON $300+ MILLION!!! (which I believe would be reached by then!)    

I'm calling it now. They are going to bump it to 300 million before tuesday.

 ...Congrats to all the 5-0 winners last night.

To put my mind at ease, tell me I'm not the biggest spender here considering I put $15.00 down for this.  10 are numbers I chose and 5 were quick picks.  I didn't come close....just 2 numbers on one line. 

Please, please, please tell me someone here spent more than me!!!!  Make me not feel so bad!!!

dont feel bad, i spoke to the clerk i visit all the time and he said he had a crazy day, people buying $100, $60, $40, $40, $20, worth of tickets

I have absolutely no idea why I haven't won the jackpot yet. After all, I did spend $33 last year on Powerball, Mega Millions and Win For Life, altogether. I probably spent 5 to 10 times as much an Cash 3 and Fantasy 5 mainly due to their superior odds. I realize that while winning either of those will not necessarily change my lifestyle forever, and that I would still most likely need to work. Maybe I will be a sucker like thousands of others and buy 20 tickets or so. I spend the most on instant games, but I am starting to develop renewed interest in online games.

Does anyone know of any reliable and trustworthy pools in the Marietta, GA area? Or the north metro Atlanta area for that matter? I am the only one who plays in my family that I know of (my father in law suggested he might like to participate, and when I asked how much he wanted to spend, he said $1. I laughed at that one). Is there anything about pools here on LP? This site has so much wonderful information that I have not made my way around it completely.

I am thinking that if I could find a group of say 10-12 folks willing to spend $25 or so each, then we would have much better odds. In such a situation, we could purchase a full wheel of 252 tickets with a 5/5 guarantee on 10 numbers. On the other hand we could get an abbreviated wheel with say 273 tickets with a 4/5 guarantee and 16 numbers. How about 271 tickets with a 3/5 guarantee and 30 numbers. Finally, we could say 204 random tickets, or special numbers, or whatever. If we did all of those, we would have $1,000 worth of tickets, so if you were to spend $25 each, you would need 40 people. Or with 40 people, you could wheel 45 numbers on 1007 tickets, but it too would only have a 3/5 guarantee.

You may or may not win, but I bet you would at least have enough lower tier winners to make some money, even if not a top prize. Assuming that there were 40 players, and if there were 2 winners of 4 balls with a megaplier of 5x, everyone would make their money back, plus however many 3 ball winners there were. Let's say that 40 people had to share the jackpot, and decided to go with the annuity (which I think is much smarter, but the group would have to vote), then each player would win 7.5 Million. After 31% combined state and federal tax is withheld, that would leave each player  just a little over $5,175,000 each.

Sure that is not as sweet as the $290,000,000 which would be about 200,000,000 after taxes, but you would increase your odds by 40 times, which would of course mean that you only got 1/40 of the prize, but I like the better odds. After taxes, each player would recieve about $200,000 a year for the next 26 years. Just about anyone should be able to live quite comfortably on that income, and set aside a percentage of that for retirement. I might keep working for a while, and I would probably spend most of my first years payment on a new or nearly new truck.

I am torn between wheeling hot and cold numbers, randomly mixing hot and cold numbers, picking my own random numbers (which is a terrible idea), using random.org lotto RNG, some other online RNG such as might be on LP, or a lottery terminals quick pick. I have no idea if the lottery terminal at each store can be fine tuned or not by the owner, but it seems like I heard that somewhere. It makes sense from the store owners perspective to have as many winners as possible. This generates a retailer bonus, and probably adds to their sales by showing off the winners.

The lottery itself would probably prefer the fewest winners possible, for a number of reasons. One is because the longer a game goes without a jackpot winner, the more excitement builds. This in turn causes more people to buy who might not otherwise, and it may convince a lot of players to purchase more tickets than normal. Also with fewer winners, there is less administration, investigations and oversight. There is less likelihood of litigation. Also, on games that are not pari-mutuel, such as Cash 3, the lottery has a vested interest in having the fewest possible winners.

Thanks myturn08, I feel a bit better.  Still sucks that I didn't even win 2bucks back but at almost 300M,  I can't help but play again!!!!

I spent 40 and got 40 back.  I won't play without the megaplier.

If it gets that high, I might have to make a 2-3 hour drive to the Texas border to play, and I doubt I'd be the only one.

............ and now ............. I gotta figure out how to spend $118,000,000 after Federal Taxes !

I almost had it last nite ........... $2 payout on my last quickpick !

Happy New Year to all .................

........... and a Happy Tuesday Nite to Me !

CarHauler

"I have absolutely no idea why I haven't won the jackpot yet...."

Here's an idea, read the odds on the back of the playslip.

Wow! I love lotteries that get this large...sure makes for wonderful dreams! This would be an awesome way to start the new year.

At least for a short while, you will be even for the year(2011)-spent nothing/won nothing/lost nothing.

I chose 30 sets of numbers and with multiplier for a $60 dollar total.  Had 18 sets with winners.   14 with one number and 4 with two numbers One (with mega ball).  for $148 won on $60 bet.

I quit using the quick pic's since i would never win. Many, many a time buy 20 and win  none.  will see if the this was a one time lucky thing or will be a trend!

If i win it, im gunna get the transmission fixed in my 87 Chevy S-10. Its just sitting beside my shop and the neighbors are complaining. I might even get some new neighbors also. I might splurge and get new tires too.

Wow. There was 1 ticket in Indiana that won. Nice win.

dopey7719 i spent $100 on the drawing and i did not even get the mega ball!

What system did you use to do 2½ times worse than the overall odds of winning any prize? 

Was it the same one that you claimed to have spent $100 every drawing for the past 5 years and hadn't won a dime?
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/225278

RJOh i spent $11 on my own numbers and $89 on quick picks this last drawing. Normally  i spend $1 on my own set of numbers and $99 on QP. I am going to trim it down to $30 a drawing!!

WOW!  The jackpot is soaring....I think I will eat an extra helping of Greens today for Good luck with money in the New Year!!   C'mon $290 Million...........  Oh the things I will do in 2011 with that kind of money.....   I bought $5 worth today...and may play another $5 of QP's before the drawing......  Boy I would have a great time going to work on WED. and clearing out my cubicle then telling the boss I'm off PERMANANTLY for VACATION!!

it feels GREAT to live in the land of zero desperation,  so the song remains the same despite the amount.

only 1QP

i spent $40 for the drawing last night and only got back $4....

me and hubby had a chit chat and we are going to make sure we have one of each money ball this time around.

sorry that u didnt win more, i played around $25 worth and didnt win anything, i agree with you that u cant help but play again, i already got a few tickets for the next drawing, hopefully the early bird will get the worm ;-)

That was supposed to be funny. I was just commenting on how little I had actually played.

Yes, 6.5 years since a jackpot winner from MA. My goal for 2011 is to break that dry spell before July 2nd when year 7 starts.

I am going to use 5 sets of numbers generated by random.org for tonight's Powerball. Now if I don't win, I will only be mad at myself for playing, not for picking the wrong numbers, because Random.org chose the numbers, not me. Too many times I pick my own numbers, and get mad when none of them are selected. The obvious patterns that I just knew were going to repeat rarely did, especially when I chose to play. I know this is most likely a losing proposition, so I may or may not buy those tickets.

I had a gentleman at QT correct me when I was giving him my opinion of the fact that the lottery is not completely random. He summed it up best when he said that the lottery is always random, but may sometimes follow short term trends  (of recurring numbers). I have heard it over and over again: any 5 numbers have the same chance of being drawn as any other. I have  finally come to the realization that this is true. Now whether to select power play or not. Waste $5 or waste $10? Maybe I should not even play, or wait for Mega Millions on Tuesday. Does selecting Power Play make sense seeing as how I am using random numbers and not wheeling anything, and only buying 5 tickets?

Lottery Quick Pick

Here are your 10 lottery tickets:

• 2-6-11-30-55 / 40
• 17-21-23-27-42 / 18
• 22-32-41-48-50 / 46
• 10-21-29-36-45 / 17
• 5-12-45-47-50 / 35
• 10-12-18-39-54 / 13
• 1-2-25-31-45 / 4
• 1-45-48-49-53 / 7
• 8-24-26-38-39 / 33
• 11-20-34-38-41 / 27

Timestamp: 2011-01-02 06:01:09 UTC

I generated these and got a strong feeling. I am not lucky, but someone SHOULD play these.

Yeah, I got it, CarHauler..the reply was meant to be funny, too.

it depends if you want $6 for a megaball or $3.  or you want 5 more chances at the top prize.

your  odds of winning is based on how many tickets you buy,  a megaplier,  halves the odds of you actually winning, by taking money that could have been spent on more lines, and spending it on betting that if those lines you do play  actually hit  it will double your prize.

look at ea megaplier $1 as a seperate bet on that line actually pulling a win,  if youy bet $5 on the 5 lines you are saying, i bet ea of these 5 lines will hit a prize this week.

now the house is betting that none of the lines are hitting a prize this , and gett ing your $5 for their wager.

i dont know of ever seeing 5 lines have more than 1 prize on them, and im pretty sure its almost mathimatically impossible to do so unless you also play the same power number. i mean 5 lines will have 25 numbers in their and the game only picks 5 numbers so thats 1 number per line, if you go 3 numbers on 1 line you are likely to have zero numbers on another 2 other lines.,

the more numbers you cover the less lilely megaplier is going to pay off.

personally, i would go for the extra 5 lines. the main prize is the only prize for me,

   What a smart idea but its too late for me - I already spent more and all ticket sales are final. The irony is that a winner will be some grandpa with a 3-dollar quick pick.  Good luck everyone.

Who has never played before this drawing... "I usually don't play since the odds are so high but saw the jackpot and figured I might as well throw in a few dollars"... I'm always thinking 'dang it!' when I read those stories, haha. It's nice since more people benefit from them helping out children/grandchildren but it gets frustrating.

I haven't bought any tickets for the drawing yet, but plan on playing at least 5. I trust something inside me will tell me when I need to go buy the winning numbers.

well i bought 5 lines for the game, via betslips., sure hope if i do win i get my money.  but 1st ill have to win.

Yes, I hope its me because I've been losing to much money.

This time it will be a young like me or you.

Looks like I will be making the Drive to GA again tomorrow =)

IF I DO NOT WIN THE JACKPOT I CAN PICTURE A VERY OLD SENIOR CITIZEN WALKING SLOWLY ACROSS THE STAGE TO COLLECT A OVERSIZED CHECK FOR $300 MILLIONS!!!! WHO SPENT $2 ON A QP  TICKET WHO NEVER PLAY THE LOTTERY UNTILL NOW!!DURING THE INTERVIEW  THE INDIVIDUAL WILL SAY I CAN PAY FOR MY GRAND KIDS OR GREAT GRAND KIDS EDUCATION!!

Just made out my playslip. I usually play 1 line sometimes megaply, but this time I'm playing 5 lines, all different numbers, no megaplier. This time I pulled the numbers from LP's RNG. If I win I'll give a shout out to LP.

i spend $1 on a Qp  for each drawing compared to some of you who spend $100 i know my chances are slim i live in a very small town in Kansas and most winners come from lager towns plus Kansas hasn't had a jackpot win yet, but i guess i'm just a crazy kid who dreams of making life for my family eaisier and making life for my kids and husband better. we are like every other american family out there i am thankful for all i have in life but a jackpot win like this would be awesome!

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!!!!!!

I just grabed two 10 dollar tickets. Wish me luck everyone!

Don't feel too bad.  I'll probally make that drive to Tennessee.

Just got back from GA from picking up Mega million tickets with the wife and kids..

Good luck to all this Tuesday!

Spent my $5 on Saturday, nobody around, so no lines!

I need to be the first in Pennsylvania to win a Mega Millions Jackpot on Tuesday!

I'll take care of that Tuesday night...

All day at work, it was the hot topic, non-lottery players are jumping into the action.

good luck everyone.

Good luck to everyone!   Hope you win your dream.

 People who do not play normally be crowned as the winner of a enormous jackpot!!!

N.Y. or California turn!!!

I've a question for everyone.   I know that most of us have bought or will buy tickets before the next drawing.   Everyone that has done so, is dreaming about what they would do with the money. 

Assuming you can claim it anonomously(?), would you come on to this forum and admit you won the drawing?

This is just for fun, not for seriousness.

Here in my state you can not claim anonomously or through a trust. I will be happy to come on this form and admit i won!!! then disapear into the sunset!!!