Wanna win the lottery? Part 1.

Winning the lottery for most people is a crapshoot. A tax on people that can't do math some would say. You buy 1 to 5 tickets. Pick one set of numbers you like, easy pick the rest and let fate work it's magic.

Well, screw all that because I CAN do math and I'm going to give you all a course on how to win the lottery and what it's going to take. I have no idea if this is legal or not but if done correctly, this will make the lottery odds work IN your favor rather than against it.

There are 56 white balls in the pool & 46 mega balls in the pool. 3,819,816 possible combonations for the white ball selection for a grand total of 175,711,536 after the mega ball is figured in. In order to for sure get the jackpot, you must purchase every one of these tickets.

At $1 a ticket, that's quite a chunk of change. Consider first the immediate kickbacks. There will be tickets that will win money, just not a jackpot. Consider the following:

2nd Place Trophys

# of Winners	Amount	Dollars Won
45	250,000	11,250,000
255	10,000	2,550,000
11,475	150	1,721,250
12,750	150	1,912,500
573,750	7	4,016,250
208,250	10	2,082,500
1,249,500	3	3,748,500
2,349,060	2	4,698,120
4,405,085	Totals	31,979,120

Basically out of the 175,711,536 tickets purchased, 4,405,086 will win (counting the jackpot) divided out this comes to an overall odds figure of 1 in 39.888 this is where their 1 in 40 overall odds comes from. Of the money going in, regardless of the jackpot, your net payment is now down to 143,732,416. I wouldn't worry about taxes either. On your tax forms you can claim gambling losses up to your your figure for Gambling winnings. Under losses, a figure like 175,711,536 will definately absorb 31,979,120.

Now, they say that "Approximately 50% of every dollar wagered goes back to the players as prizes." So, of the 175,711,536 put in by you, 87,855,768 will come back as awards. I imagine that they will pay out other 2nd place winners before building the jackpot. We know for sure 31,979,120 will come back to us. So of the money put in 55,876,648 will come back in Jackpot winnings regardless of what it started at. You may realize here I've neglected the fact that other winners are involved here. I'm assuming that the other players will take care of themselves as far as pay in and pay out. Nobody will win as efficiently as we will.

So our new cash out value after all considered winnings (short of the jackpot) is 87,855,768 exactly half of what your payout will be. Since most folks will want an immediate return on investment they'll take the lump sum. To make all your money back you will need to wait for a jackpot that is at least double this figure. So, you will need a jackpot of at least $176 million to get anywhere. (I didn't realize I'd end up right back where I started.. that's messed up) This basically means every dollar you earn beyond this is now taxable, but the rest will be offset by the money that went in.

This whole thing is contingent on nobody else winning the Jackpot with you. If that happens, you are screwed. The odds are in your favor though because while your odds are 100% everyone else is still 1 and 175,711,536 with plenty of them overlapping to give you room.

In my next article, I'll explain while all of this is meaningless drizzle and not a word of it matters.