Talk:Powerball

Explanation: New Hampshire is one of the states that participates in Powerball, thus making it impacted by New Hampshire. Wikiproject New Hampshire has a focus in regards to all articles that are related to New Hampshire in some way.

odds

the odds should be explained, as in why, when there are only 42 numbers in the powerball, are the odds 68?

Because you need to calculate in the odds of not hitting the other numbers.

The odds entered were copied directly from documentation from MUSL. Juggaleaux 02:37, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Odds of just powerball:

${\frac {55*54*53*52*51}{50*49*48*47*46}}*42=68.9592$

Odds of jackpot:

${55 \choose 5}*42={\frac {55!}{5!(55-5)!}}*42={\frac {55*54*53*52*51}{120}}*42=146,107,962$

the rest are similar

--vossman 18:03, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Why is it a factorial? Can't the same number show up more than once? thus (55^5) * 42 ? --70.111.218.254 14:22, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

No, each time a ball is drawn it is removed from the pot. --216.138.38.86 21:46, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

The odds of winning the powerball as of 2009 are 1 in 195,249,054. That means that the section is incorrect because you should have a expected value of greater than $1 any time the jackpot is over the $195.249 million mark (actually the break even would be lower when you factor in the lesser prizes). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.45.144.94 (talk) 03:21, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

external links

Here is a page (and a Google gadget) for viewing power ball results, comparing the results to your tickets, and displaying any winnings. If it is appropriate for the external links section I'd appreciate someone adding it. http://myi40.com/didiwin.php --Chainsaw76 00:38, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Analysis section

This section is very unencyclopedic in terms of tone and information, but one cannot deny that the information is interesting. Can anyone think of any ideas on how to fix it up? --Lunar Jesters _(talk) 20:00, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Immortal Players

Initially, this section said, "Finally, one might argue that the only sensible reason to play the lottery is for a chance at the jackpot. If you were to live forever, a winning strategy would be only to buy tickets when the cash-payout after taxes is better than 146 million dollars, giving at least one-to-one odds on the jackpot. At two Powerball drawings per week, you would average about 1.4 million years between jackpots. However this assumes that the odds stay the same for millions of years, and, since the rules have changed three times in ten years, each time reducing the jackpot odds, the immortal player can expect to go much longer between jackpots."

This is incorrect. The chances of success in the lottery reach fifty-fifty at only 92.3 million attempts. At 146 million attempts, the chances of success are roughly 63.2%. This should read "giving at least one-to-one payout on the jackpot", indicating that, were you to make the attempt every time the payout was this large, you would get an average return on your one dollar of at least one dollar.

If one feels the need to include this section, one might also point out that such a player would have spent far more than he made, especially as there is a strong possibility that he will split the jackpot. Filksinger 16:43, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Georgia

I read in an article that the state of Georgia left Powerball in 1996 to join Mega Millions. Why did it left a certain lottery game just to join another? Couldn't Georgia play them both? 61.9.126.41

Ga left Powerball/MUSL in 1996 to join the then-Big Game (it actually had both major games briefly, before it was booted from MUSL). [RESPONSE - GA was not booted from Powerball, GA left voluntarily. As is often the case, personality conflicts caused the change]. [Did GA really leave Powerball voluntarily? Were they not given the option of leaving voluntarily so they would not be booted?][RESPONSE: GA was NOT asked to leave and is welcome back to the game at any time]. This was, in retrospect, unfortunate. Lotto Ga eventually became part of Lotto South, which was replaced with LOSE for Life (no cash option in Ga.) Had Ga stayed with Powerball, it might now have MUSL Hot Lotto (which like LS is a multi-state jackpot game with a cash option) instead of LOSE for Life. Hot Lotto began as a six-state game a few months after LS started; it now consists of nine states and the D.C. Lottery, and might eventually expand into MUSL states that probably would have joined, or be considering, LS. (Oklahoma) will join Hot Lotto in January 2008.) South Carolina took a serious look at LS, but never joined. Louisiana might have wanted to join LS following Hurricane Katrina (much like NY joining Big Game/Mega Millions after 9/11, and also approving video lottery. 216.179.123.145 14:42, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Why join Powerball?

It's been said that part of the reason the state of Florida has yet to join a game like Powerball is because it would hurt the states own lottery. If this is so, why have so many other states joined, and does anyone know how it affected those states lotteries? [RESPONSE - State games under both PB and MM typically lose 30% in sales, but they more than make up for it in PB and MM sales (IL being the only exception). The multi-state games are also more profitable since the costs of the drawing (studio and uplink) are shared. Advertising costs may also be shared. A state keeps 100% of the profit from the multi-state games though MM states pay a small fee ($20,000 or so) a year for draw production. For Powerball, the Multi-State Lottery Association earns income from several sources and actually pays a state to join the game. MUSL pays for all expenses and then, as a non-profit group, is required to distribute its excess earnings to the member lotteries.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.105.21.234 (talk) 18:30, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Minimum jackpot?

In many other lotteries (like Euromillions) there is a guarantee that more correct numbers mean a higher payout. How is that handeled at Powerball? The minimim jackpot is $15M, so with more than 60 jackpot winners (maybe because of another fortune cookie), the payout would be lower than the $250K you would receive withoutb the correct Powerball. Will the payout be increased to $250K in this case, so that people are not "punished" for having the correct Powerball? 84.131.220.135 11:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

CO's first PB "winner" are idiots

After six years, CO finally gets its first PB jackpot-and the couple makes the wrong choice! Especially since they decided to wait 29 years to receive all their winnings (last check in 2036-will humans still be alive due to global warming?) Since there's a good chance the couple will die before getting all their payments, what about estate tax liabilities? What financial/legal/tax advice did they receive before they came forward? 216.179.123.110 14:24, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

About Winner(s) of March 15 2008 drawing

Greetings ....

UPDATE - March 18, 2008 -- Winners of March 15 2008 drawing officially identified. See main article.

In the most recent edit of the Powerball page by me - User:Fgf2007 - I removed the words "eight women" from a sentence that was describing the winning ticket for the $276.3 million Powerball lottery drawing of March 15, 2008.

I did this for the following reasons ....

TRUE - that one winning ticket has been sold.
TRUE - that there have been stories told by major media entities about eight women who may (emphasis on may) have that sole winning ticket.

HOWEVER - As of 11:45 PM EDT, Monday March 17 2008, Lottery officials in West Virginia, where the winning ticket was sold, have not made any announcement in so far as receiving and verifying a winning ticket. Nor have they confirmed the identities of whoever the winner/winners may be.

THEREFORE - Until such time that MUSL and West Virginia lottery officials verify the ticket and positively identify the winner(s), no specific mention of a winner should be made in the main Powerball Wiki-article.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank Fgf2007 (talk) 03:47, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Winning Expectations Section?

Should this section be included? This winning expection theory is not an accepted way to view any lottery game. It would seem to be more of a personal concept of risk evaluation; someone trying to push the concept mainstream. Others have theories about how numbers drawn mix colored squares in a matrix or draw little animal shapes. While this one is at least based on some math, is it all relevant (except to its creator)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.216.69.22 (talk) 18:39, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
What exactly are the calculations about the winnings based upon? For example, if the winning approximate jackpot is $200M, the payout being $.68 on the dollar, would the actual payout not be $136M before taxes as opposed to the $100M shown? Nothing in this section makes much sense. Where are these numbers from? It may be reasonable to show what people have actually won and walked away with. 64.253.174.2 (talk) 21:13, 19 August 2009 (UTC)EP