8 ms·

I wish lotteries handed out many $1M prizes instead of giving $250M to one person. People understand what to do with $1M (I think) but most people are ruined by

I wish lotteries handed out many $1M prizes instead of giving $250M to one person. People understand what to do with $1M (I think) but most people are ruined by $250M.

wvenable 7y ago
The reason they don't do that is marketing; more people play for big jackpot. I think even saying there might 250 $1 million winners this week isn't as big of an enticement.
- indigodaddy 7y ago
  Exactly, they would never sell anywhere close to the amount of tickets as they do for the single-winner lump sums that swell to ridiculous amounts. So they wouldn't have the necessary incoming ticket sales to be able to do the 250 $1 million winners.
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    Around here when the jackpots get high enough you actually find really long lines just to buy tickets. No one lines up to buy the scratch offs with much better odds of winning $1 million.
- vonzeppelin 7y ago
  When the jackpot reached a certain amount, say 500 million, they could switch from a winner takes all to essentially a raffle with 500 winners. I think it would greatly increase the number of tickets purchased when the threshold was met.
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Isn't that kinda what the Windfall game did more or less?
  - lukeholder 7y ago
    This is what the windfall game in the article did. They were smart enough to buy as many tickets as possible during this raffle.
esaym 7y ago
That actually sounds like a good idea. Though there is the old saying "the lottery is just a tax on the poor". My aunt actually won 2 million back in 2007. She had just divorced my uncle (so I guess she is my ex-aunt) and bought a ticket and used the birthdays of me and a few others as the numbers. She was smart in that she chose to set up a trust fund with yearly pay outs instead of a lump sum. She told her sister that she was going to give her a million, but then after realizing that the tax was going to be around a million, she then changed her mind. She then bought a not too fancy house on the beach for probably too much money (this was in 2007 after all). Then bought a non running yacht for $40k and a new car. Her first pay out check for the year was spent in a matter of weeks and she still had monthly payments on the new toys so she couldn't quit work either. Then she realized that the house payments were for 30 years, yet her pay out plan was only for 25 years and it would not be easy to make payments those last 5 years without more refinancing (she is still trying to figure that one out). She got scammed many times on house repairs. When she first moved in, for what ever reason she said she needed to get the windows replaced. She paid a local contractor $9k to replace the windows. He showed up with a trailer full of windows and unloaded them all (and I guess that is when she paid him). He said he'd be back later in the week to do the install. Months went by with no contact so she found another local laborer to install them. But he quickly realized that all the windows were the wrong size and basically just junk left over from other jobs. The $40k yacht never ran. Spent several years paying people to work on it, no telling how much. Then she finally sold it for $20k. Then a couple of years ago, a hurricane hit the coast. Her house stood, but windows were blown out and the house got completely soaked inside. It was gutted and rebuilt for $80k. Right before this happened, she had actually fallen in a parking lot of a pet supply store after tripping over a piece of rebar that was left over from a curb demolition. She caught herself with both hands but it tore both shoulder cuffs. I don't think lawyers even got involved. The store cut her a check for $80k. It was that $80k that she used to repair the house with. The insurance still hasn't paid her back yet. Something about they wanted every contractor preapproved or something and they reject every receipt or invoice that she sends in (still an ongoing issue). Been a wild ride...
- larrydag 7y ago
  I personally like the saying "the lottery is a tax on the innumerate"
ptaipale 7y ago
Everywhere, people say they prefer lotteries where there are more prizes with smaller wins, instead of one winner with huge jackpot. But also everywhere, their actual bahaviour is that when there is one big jackpot, they bet more. And those who arrange lotteries do know their business.
- bena 7y ago
  Exactly. Don't listen to what people say they will do, watch what they actually do.
  - arisAlexis 7y ago
    marcus Aurelius
    - arisAlexis 7y ago
      this forum is becoming very low in quality. someone downvoted my information about who said that
      - bena 7y ago
        I think the issue might be that it's a common enough thought that attribution isn't important as multiple people could have derived that independently and that simply attributing where a paraphrased quote comes from without any other commentary is in itself low quality.
- izzydata 7y ago
  That's probably true. They should try to educate people that if there are 250 times as many winners that your chances of winning a significant amount of money is much higher.
  - Johnny555 7y ago
    I think if you could educate people on their expected return from a lottery ticket purchase, they wouldn't play at all. Telling people that they have a 95% chance of winning nothing at all is not a good way of selling lottery tickets.
c0nfused 7y ago
Both the major us lotteries already do this. Matching all but the last ball wins you a million.
jedberg 7y ago
I understand how numbers work, so I don't usually play the lottery. But I do play when the jackpot cracks $1B. Not because I expect to win, but for the thrill of playing. That thrill is only there when the jackpot is at $1B.
bayareanative 7y ago
Fiscal Refeeding Syndrome (FRS).
droidist2 7y ago
I actually watched a video on CNBC's YouTube recently about the lottery and one thing they mentioned is that they've made the odds of winning worse to let bigger jackpots build up, so they're actually going in the opposite direction of what you'd like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYxYSgg6JEI&t=4m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYxYSgg6JEI&t=4m30s
OscarCunningham 7y ago
Taking this logic to its conclusion, the best kind of lottery would be one which paid out $1 to everyone who bought a ticket.

I wish lotteries handed out many $1M prizes instead of giving $250M to one person. People understand what to do with $1M (I think) but most people are ruined by $250M.

wvenable 7y ago

The reason they don't do that is marketing; more people play for big jackpot. I think even saying there might 250 $1 million winners this week isn't as big of an enticement.

indigodaddy 7y ago
Exactly, they would never sell anywhere close to the amount of tickets as they do for the single-winner lump sums that swell to ridiculous amounts. So they wouldn't have the necessary incoming ticket sales to be able to do the 250 $1 million winners.
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  Around here when the jackpots get high enough you actually find really long lines just to buy tickets. No one lines up to buy the scratch offs with much better odds of winning $1 million.
vonzeppelin 7y ago
When the jackpot reached a certain amount, say 500 million, they could switch from a winner takes all to essentially a raffle with 500 winners. I think it would greatly increase the number of tickets purchased when the threshold was met.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  Isn't that kinda what the Windfall game did more or less?
- lukeholder 7y ago
  This is what the windfall game in the article did. They were smart enough to buy as many tickets as possible during this raffle.

esaym 7y ago

That actually sounds like a good idea. Though there is the old saying "the lottery is just a tax on the poor". My aunt actually won 2 million back in 2007. She had just divorced my uncle (so I guess she is my ex-aunt) and bought a ticket and used the birthdays of me and a few others as the numbers. She was smart in that she chose to set up a trust fund with yearly pay outs instead of a lump sum. She told her sister that she was going to give her a million, but then after realizing that the tax was going to be around a million, she then changed her mind. She then bought a not too fancy house on the beach for probably too much money (this was in 2007 after all). Then bought a non running yacht for $40k and a new car. Her first pay out check for the year was spent in a matter of weeks and she still had monthly payments on the new toys so she couldn't quit work either. Then she realized that the house payments were for 30 years, yet her pay out plan was only for 25 years and it would not be easy to make payments those last 5 years without more refinancing (she is still trying to figure that one out). She got scammed many times on house repairs. When she first moved in, for what ever reason she said she needed to get the windows replaced. She paid a local contractor $9k to replace the windows. He showed up with a trailer full of windows and unloaded them all (and I guess that is when she paid him). He said he'd be back later in the week to do the install. Months went by with no contact so she found another local laborer to install them. But he quickly realized that all the windows were the wrong size and basically just junk left over from other jobs. The $40k yacht never ran. Spent several years paying people to work on it, no telling how much. Then she finally sold it for $20k. Then a couple of years ago, a hurricane hit the coast. Her house stood, but windows were blown out and the house got completely soaked inside. It was gutted and rebuilt for $80k. Right before this happened, she had actually fallen in a parking lot of a pet supply store after tripping over a piece of rebar that was left over from a curb demolition. She caught herself with both hands but it tore both shoulder cuffs. I don't think lawyers even got involved. The store cut her a check for $80k. It was that $80k that she used to repair the house with. The insurance still hasn't paid her back yet. Something about they wanted every contractor preapproved or something and they reject every receipt or invoice that she sends in (still an ongoing issue). Been a wild ride...

larrydag 7y ago
I personally like the saying "the lottery is a tax on the innumerate"

ptaipale 7y ago

Everywhere, people say they prefer lotteries where there are more prizes with smaller wins, instead of one winner with huge jackpot. But also everywhere, their actual bahaviour is that when there is one big jackpot, they bet more. And those who arrange lotteries do know their business.

bena 7y ago
Exactly. Don't listen to what people say they will do, watch what they actually do.
- arisAlexis 7y ago
  marcus Aurelius
  - arisAlexis 7y ago
    this forum is becoming very low in quality. someone downvoted my information about who said that
    - bena 7y ago
      I think the issue might be that it's a common enough thought that attribution isn't important as multiple people could have derived that independently and that simply attributing where a paraphrased quote comes from without any other commentary is in itself low quality.
izzydata 7y ago
That's probably true. They should try to educate people that if there are 250 times as many winners that your chances of winning a significant amount of money is much higher.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  I think if you could educate people on their expected return from a lottery ticket purchase, they wouldn't play at all. Telling people that they have a 95% chance of winning nothing at all is not a good way of selling lottery tickets.

c0nfused 7y ago

Both the major us lotteries already do this. Matching all but the last ball wins you a million.

jedberg 7y ago

I understand how numbers work, so I don't usually play the lottery. But I do play when the jackpot cracks $1B. Not because I expect to win, but for the thrill of playing. That thrill is only there when the jackpot is at $1B.

bayareanative 7y ago

Fiscal Refeeding Syndrome (FRS).

droidist2 7y ago

I actually watched a video on CNBC's YouTube recently about the lottery and one thing they mentioned is that they've made the odds of winning worse to let bigger jackpots build up, so they're actually going in the opposite direction of what you'd like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYxYSgg6JEI&t=4m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYxYSgg6JEI&t=4m30s

OscarCunningham 7y ago

Taking this logic to its conclusion, the best kind of lottery would be one which paid out $1 to everyone who bought a ticket.