Re: Is Powerball Ever +EV with a high jackpot?
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like right now it's $90,000,000. how high does the jackpot need to be before it becomes +ev.
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There was a calculation made , 6 months ago or so (I replied in the thread, so maybe search on my name- it might have been the Other Gambling forum, or elsewhere) that the jackpot for the Powerball would have to be in the half-billion range. That would almost guarantee that the cash value prize, minus the chances of splitting and the taxes involved, would end up as a +EV result.
If you want to wait until the lottery pools hit $500M for the first time EVER, feel free.
one could argue that waiting for the cash value to pass the 148M:1 or worse odds could be considered +EV... but you'd rarely get to play then either.
I say, when the annuity passes the odds of winning, it's HUGELY +EV for me to win the jackpot... regardless of what amount I eventually end up with as spendable cash.
Make your own call... but for a few dollars, you can't go wrong IMO unless you're going broke.
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also does the powerplay increase your ev or decrease it?
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Take a guess- do lotteries and bonus features get added because they'll cost the organization MORE than it had been costing them, before the new feature was added?
(answer: only if someone screwed up)
I'd rather spend $2 on two chances at 90M than adding a dollar to give me ~15M:1 chance to win a million dollars... or less, depending on which powerplay factor came up.
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