Well, isn’t this special:
The cost of buying a Mega Millions jackpot dream will soon more than double, but lottery officials said they’re confident players won’t mind paying more after changes that will lead to larger prizes and more frequent winners. Lottery officials announced Monday that it will cost $5 to play Mega Millions, beginning in April, up from the current $2 per ticket.
Mega Millions will introduce changes at a time when fewer people are buying tickets and jackpots need to reach ever-higher figures before sporadic players notice and opt to buy a ticket or two. Whereas a $500 million jackpot once prompted lines out convenience store doors, top prizes of $1 billion now often draw more of a ho-hum response.
Yeah, that’s right: in the face of declining sales, boost revenue by increasing the price. Fucking morons. Ask Detroit how that’s worked out for them.
And even more special:
“Spending 5 bucks to become a millionaire or billionaire, that’s pretty good,” said Joshua Johnston, director of the Washington Lottery and lead director of the group that oversees Mega Millions. The price increase will be one of many changes to Mega Millions that officials said will result in improved jackpot odds, more frequent giant prizes and even larger payouts.
Sure; odds go from 2 trillion-1 to 1 trillion-1. We lottery players may be suckers, but not that much.
And:
“You pay 5 bucks for your Starbucks,” Johnston noted.
But at the end of that transaction you get a cup of coffee in your hand, as opposed to a largely-worthless piece of paper.
I have this to say to MegaMillions:
…and thanks for nothing, assholes.
And thankee, sorta, to Reader Mike L. for the link.
If you win the jackpot – you have two choices
– take an annuity – X amount of money over 20 to 30 years. The lottery can invest the money or make the money to pay you each year through interest or sales
– take a lump sum – the lottery takes half off of the top, then the butt fuckers at the IRS take about half of the half. So if you win a billion dollars, IF, you get a cool 250 million roughly after lump sum fee and taxes.
I’d still want to win, but this is some bullshit.
It used to be said that lottery is a tax on the poor.
At 5 bucks bucks a ticket I think it becomes a tax on the stupid.
The government and all their entities are really giving it to the citizens raw dog no lube. I guess someone has to pay for all the money Joe and the Hoe wasted, lots of illegals who invaded the country that we all have to chip in to support. Lottery players must pay up too I guess.
It has always been a tax on the stupid.
Why are the poor, poor? Because they’re so clever?
I approve of stupidity taxes.
Fred, regardless of where you win the lottery, as a U.S. citizen the IRS is going to tax your winnings the minute you bring them back into the country.
The only alternative to that would be to stay in Canada as a millionaire… errrrr pass on that.
#HatesCommies #LovesGuns
They’ll be my winnings.
Then they’ll be a gift from me to you. No gift tax up here either.
I’ll even hand over the 5% I originally suggested – well worth it to beat a government, any government, out of a tax.
I’ll front the money too. You can pay periodically after the tickets lose.
For what it’s worth, Canadian Lottery winnings are not taxable.
If you must pay a small stupidity tax to stay happy, find some way to pay a Canadian stupidity tax.
I’ll make you a deal: Send me a few bucks, I’ll buy LottoMax tickets, mail them to you, and you give me 5% of any winnings. You’ll have to come here to collect, totally unarmed, which will give you the creeps, but to avoid ruinous taxes, why not?
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/lotto-max-jackpot-rolls-to-75-million-for-the-first-time-in-canadian-lottery-history-899332149.html
Dutch government taxes lottery winnings at 25%, AFTER taxing the lottery tickets at 21%, and pocketing everything that’s not paid out (and most lotteries pay out at most about a third) because the government has an effective monopoly on organising lotteries.
My dad did the math years ago. If you deposit the cost of a ticket of our monthly national lottery in a savings account you end up with more money in the bank after 25 years than were you to win the theoretical average winnings over that same period. And that’s with an interest rate on that bank account of only 2-3% at the time.
Not Only do the States and the Fed get their cut first, but the fix is in from the start. In 2021 the Total sales of all the Lotteries in the US was $95 BILLION and the Total amount of prize money paid out? —- $64 billion. So, As I said a Tax on people bad at Math.
…… and as for per person spending, Massachusetts leads the list with ~ $ 900 each per year.
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/lottery-statistics/#:~:text=Research.%20Lottery%20Statistics%20and%20Revenue%20by%20State.%20Updated?msockid=30b854889a5a63f801bf40c09b7a6231
I live in Massachusetts. Sucks. People on welfare can go to ATM’s and get some of their monthly benefits out in cash. I wonder how much of that cash goes to needed items rather than lottery, drugs and other vices and bullshit
Scratchers used to be a dollar, but now they have them for up to $50. Seems like they’re just giving the people what they want.
$2 is entertainment, $ 5.00 a ticket is too much. just like I’ve never bought a cup overpriced coffee from Starbucks, Now my occasional lottery ticket will only be a PowerBall Ticket. …….. and have you been to Dunkin Donuts recently?
The NH Lottery started this as way to increase the States’ share of the revenue from the Track, thus the price of the $2.00 ticket. the same as the basic bet at the Horse and Dog tracks. Massachusetts jumped in as a way to compete with the Numbers bookies at the corner SPA’s with Mega-Millions. Soon other states jumped on board and Mega-Millions was born. the $2.00 bet remained.
But lets fix what isn’t broken and raise the price to $5. What could go wrong?
The people running Powerball must be quietly celebrating. They know that if you want to see bigger prises just increase the odds with more nuymbers as they have done several times n the past. They know the Lottery is a Tax on the poeple bad at math.
A “tax” that many of us just stopped paying.
When a tax stops providing a benefit to the taxpayer, people stop throwing dollars into a bucket with no handle. At some point, that starts to apply to all the money that we give, or is extracted by government, for the services they are allegedly providing to We, The People!
I used to live in the New Orleans area and several of my workmates routinely tied their vacations around trips to a casino. They would all claim that they generally “break even” over time, which we all know is bullshit since breaking even results in the casino going tits-up in the long run. One guy eventually explained it to me as “paying for entertainment”. Basically, all entertainment costs money. Whether you rent a cabana and go to the beach, or watch a movie, or tour the Grand Canyon on a donkey. His preferred entertainment was gambling, and he budgeted accordingly. Simple as that. Whether he won or lost, he was entertained.
To that extent, I’d throw a dollar or two at some long-shot chance just for the hell of it. It’s 5 minutes of entertainment to compare numbers and see if I won, plus whatever time I spent daydreaming about what I’d do with my winnings. For a few bucks, that’s a bargain. But by raising prices they just guaranteed that I will spend my $5 on something a little more concrete, like breakfast.
I’ve often wondered whether, instead of a lottery (with no guarantee that anyone will win any given drawing), a better approach might be a *raffle*. Payouts would likely be lower, but a winner is guaranteed every time, and the odds of winning are based solely on the number of tickets sold, so much better than with a lottery.
Congratulations, ticket holder! You may already be a loser.
growing up my family played the local state lottery on a regular basis each week. I have not continued that trend.
When the lottery gets big I’ll buy a couple of tickets. Unfortunately my luck has been poor with the lottery and the raffles at various sportsmen’s organizations to the point that I’ve lost interest. Five bucks a chance now just furthers my disinterest
The guy Don mentions has the right attitude about gambling. the problem is that many people cannot set and abide by rational limits and they end up losing their property or committing crimes to cover their losses.
I’ve never owned a ticket, nor do I plan to buy any.
But I spend a lot of time in line behind people who purchase them at convenience stores.
The price increase will come out of their pockets, but I think most of them will keep buying them.