But when the jackpot is bigger, more people buy tickets, too, which makes the EV for that week go down. It's not at all clear to me which effect is bigger. (I

But when the jackpot is bigger, more people buy tickets, too, which makes the EV for that week go down. It's not at all clear to me which effect is bigger. (Indeed, I wonder if your best bet is to buy the first week the jackpot rolls over, but not when it has rolled over multiple times.) At any rate, if the expected return over long periods is $.58 for $1, I sure wouldn't expect it to even get close to $1 on the best weeks.