Let's get hit by lightning! Or get sainted?

[Curt James]

Record Jackpot Has Americans Dreaming of Riches - YouTube
A whopping 640 million dollar jackpot, giving a 1 in 176 million chance of winning, is creating a frenzy across America. The new world record lottery jackpot has people dreaming of becoming filthy, dripping rich. (March 30)

According to the reporter, you're 50 times more likely to be hit by lightning than hit this lotto. Sainthood? A 20,000 times greater chance of that happening to you in your lifetime than winning this jackpot.

After federal taxes you'd get $347 million. Americans have spent nearly $1.5 billion on tickets for their shot at winning! Odds of winning are very close to zero.

 

[maniclion]

My gf had her daughter buy us 20... Someones gotta win it right?

 

[redz]

Can you imagine how dangerous it is to give some people that money. Some crack head or something lol.

 

[Curt James]

$347 million after taxes. Someone could definitely get into a good amount of trouble.

 

[~RaZr~]

I bet some alcoholic who's liver is failing will win it. That or some person who would spend the majority of the cash on useless crap.....

Damn that's a lot of money though

 

[Little Wing]

i buy candles instead

 

[Zaphod]

Normally I buy one easy pick for multiple draws. Today I spent an extra $5. And I didn't win, as expected. But there is always that miniscule chance and the brief thrill that "maybe..." But my multi-draw still has a couple more draws left on it.

 

[maniclion]

Some people have been struck by lightning twice, I saw a show the other night about a guy who won millions and the later won $10,000...

 

[maniclion]

If I won I'd use 176 million to play again with every combo of numbers....

 

[SFW]

Id feed the homeless and create a a residence for them. involving inpatient mental and substance abuse, as well as vocational studies.

 

[Curt James]

Id feed the homeless and create a a residence for them. involving inpatient mental and substance abuse, as well as vocational studies.

 

[Curt James]

Travie McCoy: Billionaire ft. Bruno Mars [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube

 

[SloppyJ]

Me and my GF were eating dinner talking about what we would do with the money. I said that I would buy this forum and ban all of the dumbfucks that I wanted to!

Then we went and bought 20 tickets.... well she won 3 dollars. That's about it.

 

[Curt James]

^^^^ lol

Wait. Would I make the cut?

 

[Curt James]

Winning Mega Millions ticket bought in Maryland!

By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

2-4-23-38-46, Mega Ball 23.

If those are the numbers on your Mega Millions lottery ticket, you've won a jackpot worth a world record $640 million.
At least one ticket matched those numbers following Friday night's drawing - purchased in Maryland's Baltimore County, lottery officials said early Saturday.

Scores of wanna-be multimillionaires held their collective breath as the lottery numbers were drawn at 11 p.m. ET. Most exhaled as realism took hold: chances of winning were just 1 in 176 million.

With much of the nation gripped by Mega Millions fever this week, hopefuls inundated convenience stores, gas stations and other ticket outlets in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands, forking out nearly $1.5 billion. The $1shot at mega-wealth had been the talk of TV, social media sites, office water coolers and dreamy high-rollers for the past week, electrifying ticket sales with a frenzy that amped up leading to Friday's drawing.

The pot has grown nearly $300 million since Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing failed to draw a top prize winner for the 18th consecutive time since Jan. 27.

"It's uncharted territory," says Buddy Roogow, director of the Washington, D.C., lottery, which issued a commemorative "I Played The World's Largest Jackpot" ticket this week. A typical Mega Millions drawing sells 250,000 tickets in the nation's capital. Friday sales were expected to top 1 million.

Social media users were buzzing about the jackpot on Facebook and Twitter, mostly about what they would do with the money, but also about the minute possibility of winning the top prize.

"I'm reading an article about what to do after you hit the mega millions jackpot. Next article, how to housebreak your unicorn," says @scottbhuff on Twitter. Some posters link to a someecards.com poster that shows a man consoling a woman, and include this phrase: "Plenty of people don't win the lottery the first few thousand times they play."

Many in Indiana were further encouraged by the promise of freebies: Hoosier Lotteryofficials gave away one free Mega Millions ticket to each of the first 540 players at several outlets around the state Friday ??? a plan announced before the jackpot grew.

Thursday lines for tickets at Bluebird Liquor in Hawthorne, Calif., stretched a half block down Hawthorne Boulevard and around a side street for another half block. Some, such as Zulodius Morgan, waited in line for three hours to purchase tickets at the store, which has a reputation for being lucky for lottery players. Hawthorne resident Vianca Zaragoza bought tickets Wednesday with family members and was back purchasing 65 for a 10-person office pool at a local clothing company.

"Business is great," says Bluebird owner James Kim, working furiously behind the counter with four employees.

Manhattan lottery ticket buyers tapped into various rituals and quirky procedures in hopes of building their luck. Some of the folks buying tickets at the newsstands down 1st Avenue in New York City used numbers that were printed on Chinese fortune cookies. Others used birth dates, while some went to different retailers on the same block.

Idaho, one of 42 states to offer Mega Millions tickets, typically sells 200,000 to 250,000 tickets. "We're at 800,000 right now and expect to sell over 1 million by Friday night," says state lottery director Jeff Anderson.

Lorraine Malkmus, manager of the Maverick Country store in Meridian, Idaho, added additional clerks to handle demand.
"We've been jammed since Tuesday," Malkmus says. "We're selling over 2,000 tickets a day ??? 400 to 500 is normal. People who've never played before are coming in for tickets."

Customers at Merola's Market in Burlington, Vt., were lined up at the lottery counter eight to nine deep for much of Thursday. "It's been very, very busy," clerk Eric Foy says. "They all want their shot."

In Southern California's Coachella Valley, consumers spent up to 10 times more than usual on Mega Millions tickets, says David Woosley, field consultant for several 7-Eleven stores.

"It's been outrageous," Woosley says.

In Minnesota, some outlets pre-printed Mega Millions tickets to speed sales. Jason Schutz of St. Cloud bought 11 tickets at a SpeedStop. "My 401(k) is worth so little. My only chance to retire is Mega Millions," he says.

In Wilmington, Del., Greg del Rio, a supervisor at Hotel du Pont, bought 38 tickets for a workers' pool. If they win? "We'll have no more employees," he says. "Nothing will get clean."

At Mike's convenience store in West Ocean City, Md., Lorrie Flather, snapped up six tickets. Flather, 74, won $600 and $1,300 in previous lotteries.

"They say the third time is the charm, so I'm bound to win, you know," she says.

Ray Springer, an unemployed Navy veteran, purchased a Mega Millions ticket and state game tickets at a southwest Atlanta Shell Food Mart.

"I normally don't play Mega Millions because those jackpots are normally not won in Georgia," he says.

Many ticket buyers let computers pick numbers. Others, such as retiree William Dillard, have their own system. "I play my kids' birthdays, mine, my brother's plus my mother's and father's," he says.

New Orleans resident Lisa Freeman had never bought a Mega Millions ticket before. At 7:30 a.m. Thursday, she received a text message from her twin sister in Jackson, Miss., with a list of numbers they should play. Lisa bought 12 tickets.

"It's something people here can really look forward to," Freeman says.

The Brother's Food Mart in the Lower 9th Ward also had a steady stream of Mega Millions customers ??? many first-time buyers, manager Ali Sylla says.

One of his customers was Patrice Gordon, a first-time Mega Millions buyer, who bought three tickets each for herself and her friend, Dionne Knight.

Knight, 43, says the Mega Millions jackpot has been the topic of non-stop talk at the bar she owns, The New Place. Just the prospect of the mammoth payout has been good for the city, she says, which in recent years has weathered devastating floods, oil spills and, more recently, a series of sanctions on their beloved NFL team, the New Orleans Saints.

"It's well-needed here," Knight says. "It'll be great for the city if someone here won."

Insurer Progressive parlayed Mega Millions fever into a marketing event, says Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney. Progressive's TV ad icon, "The Messenger" (actor John Jenkinson) gave away nearly 2,000 lottery tickets on Decatur and Canal streets Friday at 9:30 a.m.

Typically, a store earns five to six cents from each ticket sold, plus a commission for selling a winning ticket. Demand for Mega Millions tickets boosted overall retail sales at many convenience stores.

"It's an amazing opportunity to introduce yourself to new customers," says Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. "For a lot of stores, this is their debutante ball."

Contributing: Laura Petrecca in New York; Rick Jervis in New Orleans, Bill Welch in Los Angeles, Larry Copeland in Atlanta; Mike Chalmers, The (Delaware) News Journal; Brian Shane, The Daily Times, Salisbury, Md.; Trevor Hughes, Fort Collins Coloradoan; Matt Sutkoski, The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press; Sherry Barkas, The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, Calif.; Amy Bowen, St. Cloud (Minn.) Times; Jonathan Ellis, (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader and Associated Press.

From Winning lottery numbers are in for Mega Millions!

 

[SloppyJ]

^^^^ lol

Wait. Would I make the cut?

Your grammar is good so you can stay. That's one of my pet peeves...."Hey can I get advise on this?"

 

[Curt James]

^^^^ Whew!

 

[ctr10]

Can't win if you don't play

 

[Ichigo]

The odds are if you play at least $40.00 you might hit 3 numbers, possibly 4 numbers. It makes no sense to play anything more than $1 or $2 bucks.