Many lotteries out there have a minimum guaranteed jackpot – which is commonly much lower than the total expenses to cover all the possible tickets. On the other hand, there are games that are pari-mutuel and rely on total ticket sales. Considering a 51% share of the prize fund allocated to the jackpot, imagine the following situation:
You buy every combination of lottery tickets and win.
52% of what you paid is guaranteed in the jackpot, plus 52% of everyone else’s purchase.
There are other secondary prizes guaranteed by other tickets, but they are just a couple thousand at best.
The prize may have to be shared with another winner.
Even without putting exact numbers, it should be kbc head office number punjab clear that pari-mutuel lotteries are also not a good idea to buy every combination of lottery tickets. Therefore, we are left with the lotteries with huge rollovers like Mega Millions or Powerball, for example, to continue our investigation.
What Happens If You Buy Every Possible Combination of Lottery Tickets?
Now that it is clear that rollover lotteries are the best option when it comes to buying all lottery tickets to guarantee the jackpot. However, that does not mean it is a good idea, only that it is not a guarantee of loss. Let’s imagine that you have chosen Powerball with three different levels of rollover:
Level 1: $500 Million
Level 2: $800 Million
Level 3: $1.6 Billion
Notice that the first level is already a huge rollover that would put the winner close to the top 10 biggest Powerball prizes. The third level is simply a bit higher than the record prize ever paid by the game. Keep those numbers in mind for what comes next:
When you buy every combination of lottery tickets in Powerball, you spend $2 per ticket. Considering there are 292,201,338 combinations, your total cost would be $584,402,676. In other words, the first level of rollover is no longer a possibility.
We can estimate that you would need 1,000 people to buy tickets without a single second of stop during the 72 hours from one drawing to another. Remember that mass printing is not available, so everything would need to be done manually.
If you manage that by a miracle, just imagine having to transport half a billion tickets somehow, from all the different retailers. And do not think of lottery sites, as you would not be capable of purchasing that many tickets – or even depositing that much money.
If you are lucky enough to be the only winner, you would have to decide between lump-sum payments and annuities. While the second one is off-limits because you would need the money now, the first one would leave you with 60% of the prize before taxes.
How Much Would You Win or Lose If You Bought Every Combination of Lottery Tickets?
That is the moment when we get back to those absurd jackpot values that are extremely rare but may happen again. We had the rollovers of $800 Million and $1.6 Billion, so let’s calculate how much would be left if you had bought every combination of lottery tickets as explained above:
$800 Million x 60% (Lump-Sum Payment) = $480,000 before taxes, meaning that you would have already lost over $100,000 even before the US taxes were applied.
$1.6 Billion x 60% (Lump-Sum Payment) = $960,000 – taxes = $720,000 (state taxes not applied)
Therefore, if the jackpot record of Powerball would repeat when you put that plan into action and no one else matched the numbers, you could get a $136 million profit in a state with no lottery taxes. Otherwise, your profit could be as low as $20 million.
kbcwineers 