(corrected re-post as I mistakenly
stated I had made 3 previous posts
in this thread, but actually I had made
4 previous posts in this thread)

Links to my 4 previous posts in this thread:

July 23 2020
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/i5lWujmGAAAJ

January 21 2021
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/iZ7B9E1UDwAJ

January 23 2021
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/nRbyHn_tDwAJ

March 12 2021
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/-oKwts1sAgAJ

Well, despite the overwhelming odds of some-
thing bad happening being far greater than the
miniscule odds that one will win a Megamillions
lottery with one ticket, I'm going to buy a ticket
today.

I can't remember the last time I bought a ticket,
perhaps it was the 5 tickets I purchased trying
to win a $1.05 Billion dollar Mega Millions lot-
tery back in January 2021.

What the hey, why not, as pretending one can
be rich is fun even though the chance of that
happening is laughably minuscule & far less
than the chance of dying by one of the unfor-
tunate highly unlikely events mentioned in the
initial post in this thread.

https://www.megamillions.com/

Next Estimated Jackpot $1.02 Billion
CASH OPTION: $602.5 MILLION
Next Drawing: Friday, 7/29 @ 11 p.m. ET

---

Funny thing is I had found out via google news
that the lottery was up to $790 Million, but I
got so busy yesterday posting about heights
in here & posting about a report on my first 8
days of using an Omnipod 5 continuous glu-
cose monitor close-loop auto-basil-insulin-

.... dosing device based on glucose levels via
a connected Dexcom G6 CGM at misc.health.
diabetes (Disparate High Glucose Conditions)
that I forgot about buying a lottery ticket.

That lottery actually got to $830 Million.

According to Mega Millions, 9 tickets matched
the first 5 numbers but didn't match the Mega
Ball. 8 of those 9 won a Million dollars each, &
1 of the 9 purchased the Megaplier feature to
raise their 2nd-place consolation prize to $3
Million.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mega-millions-drawing-numbers-winning-tickets-one-ball-short/

--- --- ---

Follow-up to previous post at
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/EBb4QqylCQAJ

Well, didn't buy a ticket 'til today. For fun,
comparing my ticket to the recent (last 20)
past lotteries:
https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers/Previous-Drawings.aspx

I would give the picture on my other
numbers being among the last 20
winners, but I don't want to say too
much 'cause if I beat the odds, I plan
to try & remain anonymous. (-:

Interesting that 60 & 66 were among
the lower 5 winning numbers in the
last 2 lotteries & the last 2 megaball
winning numbers were 16 & 15. Such
is the odd (at times) nature of random
numbers.

I will say that 3 of my lower 5 numbers
on my randomly selected ticket have
been winners in the last 2 lotteries. (-:

All of that has absolutely nothing to
do with my odds of winning this lot-
tery, which remain at 1 in 302.57535
million, no matter which numbers are
on my ticket.

Of course, I suppose if one chooses
common numbers, like 2 -4 - 6 - 8 - 10
& 12 for the Megaball, odds are that a
lot of folks will choose those numbers
and if one wins, each winner would
have to share the winnings with a lot
of others.

By the way, the display at the store
where I purchased the ticket displays
the current Megamillions lottery as
$999 Million 'cause that sign has the
Million written on the sign (unchange-
able) & in the changeable part doesn't
have the ability to display a number >
999.

As I wrote earlier in my posts, it's very
rare for powerball or megamillions to
go over a billion dollars. This is only
the 3rd time it has happened in mega-
millions history and it has happened
only once in powerball history.

[clarifying inserts included in brackets]

Billion dollar Powerball & Megamillions
lotteries
https://www.narcity.com/largest-lottery-jackpots-ever-billion-mega-millions-powerball

#1: $1.586 Billion Powerball:

The world's largest ever sum won in a lottery
was worth over $1.5 billion and was split be-
tween three different winners.

On January 13, 2016, three California, Florida
and Tennessee residents became the winners
of the gigantic sum; best of all, they got to keep
all the money [referring to no state taxes, but
failing to state they all were hit with hefty fed-
eral taxes].

Florida and Tennessee don't have a state in-
come tax, while California doesn't deduct taxes
from lottery winnings on tickets bought in-state,
reported AP.

[Unstated, federal income tax hits everyone]

#2: $1.537 Billion Mega Millions:

On October 23, 2018, one lucky resident from
South Carolina became the winner of the world's
largest lottery jackpot in history to be won by a
single ticket.

To say he was lucky is an understatement.

The winner, who decided to remain anonymous,
actually let someone ahead of them in line to pur-
chase a Mega Millions ticket, scoring themselves
the winning ticket.

[interesting, I suppose that person anonymously
told Hogan or someone else that, & if one is prone
to be skeptical or to question whether someone
is just claiming something that's not verified, one
would be prone to doubt that & the following state-
ment]

The commission's executive director, Hogan Brown,
said in a statement that the winner "marvels at how
every decision made that day brought the winner to
the store, at that very moment."

"A simple act of kindness led to an amazing out-
come."

[i.e. technically, time of purchase has nothing what-
soever to do with random chance, & the winning tic-
ket is simply a matter of good luck, not timing or
kindness or good or evil, it's simply a matter of luck,
& had he cut in line or been angry or had any dispos-
ition whatsoever, luck is simply a matter of luck, ...

.... no way of making it happen & the only sure way
of preventing it from happening regarding lotteries
is to not purchase a ticket. Also of note, instances
of bad things happening to some lottery winners,
sometimes bad consequences from winning, such
is life, sometimes losing would've been better]

#3: $1.05 Billion Mega Millions:

A four-member Detroit lottery club won the third-high-
est lottery jackpot amount of $1.05 billion on January
22, 2021.

After taxes reduction, the winners took home an imme-
diate lump sum of $557 million.

[the four winning club members, $139,250,000
after taxes for each of the 4 winners.]

An attorney for the club came out with a statement on
behalf of the winners saying, "This kind of money will
impact the families of our club members for genera-
tions to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it for-
ward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan."

[Easily said, but the amount of charitable giving & the
entities each of them gave/give money to is probably
undisclosed, though of course, any of the 4 can say
how much & to whom they donate money to, that's
simply a matter of personal choice.]

*--- --- ---*

Another follow-up:

Retirement, I love it. This post reflects
what one can do with their time when
they have time to do anything they want
in retirement, & they're willing to use a
Big Calculator to work on lottery odds.
https://www.calculator.net/big-number-calculator.html

Odds of winning a Megamillions lottery,
1 in 302,575,350 which =
0.00000000330496188800574798971561959690371340560293
with 50 digits after the decimal point.

So, what are the odds of *losing* a
Megamillions lottery?
1 - 0.00000000330496188800574798971561959690371340560293
with 50 digits after the decimal point, which =
0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
which = 99.999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707%,
a near-certainty.

If one buys one ticket for every Megamillions
lottery in a year (that's 102 tickets in one year),
what are the odds of losing all 102 of those
lotteries?

That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 102nd power, which =
0.99999966289394368661164790067421198443771275495432
with 50 digits after the decimal point, which =
99.999966289394368661164790067421198443771275495432%,
still a near certainty.

What if one starts buying a Megamillions lottery
ticket on one's 18th birthday & buys one ticket for
every Megamillions lottery 'til one's 108th birthday,
90 years from when one started, what are that per-
son's odds of losing all 9,180 of those lotteries?

That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 9180th power, which =
0.9999696609100574698305903441341679732779588739017079
with 52 digits after the decimal point (the Big Calcu-
lator drops the 50th digit when it's a zero, so I did the
calculation with 52 digits & the last 50th, 51st, & 52nd ...

.... numbers are 079) which =
99.99696609100574698305903441341679732779588739017079%,
still a near-certainty, but hey, maybe life extensions
will be available at some point, and if one were to
keep buying a Megamillions lottery ticket, well, ...

.... let's say one was able to live to be 518 years
old, buying one ticket on every Megamillions lot-
tery 'til one's 518th birthday, that would be
51,000 lottery tickets.

What would be one's odds of losing all 51,000
Megamillions lotteries? That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 51,000th power, which = ???

The Big Calculator says "Fatal error: Maximum
execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /var/www/calculator/nonavusefulcalc/big-number-calculator.php
on line 227

So, I suppose I would need a bigger calculator
if life extension ever transpires. Hmmm, I went
to the following website and entered
0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707^51000
and pressed Execute. The answer is ...

.... 0.99983146114770154632164501700478166953031853240545
with 50 digits after the decimal point, which =
99.983146114770154632164501700478166953031853240545%

So, that's better than the 99.996966% odds
on one's 108th birthday, 99.9831% odds on
one's 518th birthday, something to look for-
ward to were one to have the good fortune
to have good health & mental fitness & finally,
on one's 51,000th try at it, winning the Mega ...

.... Millions lottery, but then again, presuming
the world is in good shape, everyone having
good health & mental fitness on their 518th
birthday would be winners presuming all of
the downsides of life will have been over-
come by then.

On Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 3:10:43 PM UTC-5, observer wrote:

..> Follow-up to previous post at
..> https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/EBb4QqylCQAJ
..>
..> Well, didn't buy a ticket 'til today. For fun,
..> comparing my ticket to the recent (last 20)
..> past lotteries:
..> https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers/Previous-Drawings.aspx
..>
..> I would give the picture on my other
..> numbers being among the last 20
..> winners, but I don't want to say too
..> much 'cause if I beat the odds, I plan
..> to try & remain anonymous. (-:
..>
..> Interesting that 60 & 66 were among
..> the lower 5 winning numbers in the
..> last 2 lotteries & the last 2 megaball
..> winning numbers were 16 & 15. Such
..> is the odd (at times) nature of random
..> numbers.
..>
..> I will say that 3 of my lower 5 numbers
..> on my randomly selected ticket have
..> been winners in the last 2 lotteries. (-:
..>
..> All of that has absolutely nothing to
..> do with my odds of winning this lot-
..> tery, which remain at 1 in 302.57535
..> million, no matter which numbers are
..> on my ticket.
..>
..> Of course, I suppose if one chooses
..> common numbers, like 2 -4 - 6 - 8 - 10
..> & 12 for the Megaball, odds are that a
..> lot of folks will choose those numbers
..> and if one wins, each winner would
..> have to share the winnings with a lot
..> of others.
..>
..> By the way, the display at the store
..> where I purchased the ticket displays
..> the current Megamillions lottery as
..> $999 Million 'cause that sign has the
..> Million written on the sign (unchange-
..> able) & in the changeable part doesn't
..> have the ability to display a number >
..> 999.
..>
..> As I wrote earlier in my posts, it's very
..> rare for powerball or megamillions to
..> go over a billion dollars. This is only
..> the 3rd time it has happened in mega-
..> millions history and it has happened
..> only once in powerball history.
..>
..> [clarifying inserts included in brackets]
..>
..> Billion dollar Powerball & Megamillions
..> lotteries
..> https://www.narcity.com/largest-lottery-jackpots-ever-billion-mega-millions-powerball
..>
..> #1: $1.586 Billion Powerball:
..>
..> The world's largest ever sum won in a lottery
..> was worth over $1.5 billion and was split be-
..> tween three different winners.
..>
..> On January 13, 2016, three California, Florida
..> and Tennessee residents became the winners
..> of the gigantic sum; best of all, they got to keep
..> all the money [referring to no state taxes, but
..> failing to state they all were hit with hefty fed-
..> eral taxes].
..>
..> Florida and Tennessee don't have a state in-
..> come tax, while California doesn't deduct taxes
..> from lottery winnings on tickets bought in-state,
..> reported AP.
..>
..> [Unstated, federal income tax hits everyone]
..>
..> #2: $1.537 Billion Mega Millions:
..>
..> On October 23, 2018, one lucky resident from
..> South Carolina became the winner of the world's
..> largest lottery jackpot in history to be won by a
..> single ticket.
..>
..> To say he was lucky is an understatement.
..>
..> The winner, who decided to remain anonymous,
..> actually let someone ahead of them in line to pur-
..> chase a Mega Millions ticket, scoring themselves
..> the winning ticket.
..>
..> [interesting, I suppose that person anonymously
..> told Hogan or someone else that, & if one is prone
..> to be skeptical or to question whether someone
..> is just claiming something that's not verified, one
..> would be prone to doubt that & the following state-
..> ment]
..>
..> The commission's executive director, Hogan Brown,
..> said in a statement that the winner "marvels at how
..> every decision made that day brought the winner to
..> the store, at that very moment."
..>
..> "A simple act of kindness led to an amazing out-
..> come."
..>
..> [i.e. technically, time of purchase has nothing what-
..> soever to do with random chance, & the winning tic-
..> ket is simply a matter of good luck, not timing or
..> kindness or good or evil, it's simply a matter of luck,
..> & had he cut in line or been angry or had any dispos-
..> ition whatsoever, luck is simply a matter of luck, ...
..>
..> ... no way of making it happen & the only sure way
..> of preventing it from happening regarding lotteries
..> is to not purchase a ticket. Also of note, instances
..> of bad things happening to some lottery winners,
..> sometimes bad consequences from winning, such
..> is life, sometimes losing would've been better]
..>
..> #3: $1.05 Billion Mega Millions:
..>
..> A four-member Detroit lottery club won the third-high-
..> est lottery jackpot amount of $1.05 billion on January
..> 22, 2021.
..>
..> After taxes reduction, the winners took home an imme-
..> diate lump sum of $557 million.
..>
..> [the four winning club members, $139,250,000
..> after taxes for each of the 4 winners.]
..>
..> An attorney for the club came out with a statement on
..> behalf of the winners saying, "This kind of money will
..> impact the families of our club members for genera-
..> tions to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it for-
..> ward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan."
..>
..> [Easily said, but the amount of charitable giving & the
..> entities each of them gave/give money to is probably
..> undisclosed, though of course, any of the 4 can say
..> how much & to whom they donate money to, that's
..> simply a matter of personal choice.]
..>
..> \*--- --- ---*/

(corrected re-post as I don't know where
I came up with 102 lotteries in a year, as
actually, with 52 weeks in a year, that's
104 lotteries, duh, fixed below, and I left
off mentioning number of digits after
the decimal point this time around)

Another follow-up:

Retirement, I love it. This post reflects
what one can do with their time when
they have time to do anything they want
in retirement, & they're willing to use the
following calculator to work on lottery
odds.
https://www.calculator.net/big-number-calculator.html

Odds of winning a Megamillions lottery,
1 in 302,575,350 which =
0.00000000330496188800574798971561959690371340560293

So, what are the odds of *losing* a
Megamillions lottery?
1 - 0.00000000330496188800574798971561959690371340560293
which =
0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
which = 99.999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707%,
a near-certainty.

If one buys one ticket for every Megamillions
lottery in a year (that's 104 tickets in one year),
what are the odds of losing all 104 of those
lotteries?

That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 104th power, which =
0.999999656284022149768257983616473661402560195003
which =
99.9999656284022149768257983616473661402560195003%,
still a near certainty.

What if one starts buying a Megamillions lottery
ticket on one's 18th birthday & buys one ticket for
every Megamillions lottery 'til one's 108th birthday,
90 years from when one started, what are that per-
son's odds of losing all 9,360 of those lotteries?

That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 9360th power, which =
0.99996906603514210577297182007394459120317015062611
which =
99.996906603514210577297182007394459120317015062611%,
still a near-certainty, but hey, maybe life extensions
will be available at some point, and if one were to
keep buying a Megamillions lottery ticket, well, ...

.... let's say one was able to live to be 518 years
old, buying one ticket on every Megamillions lot-
tery 'til one's 518th birthday, that would be
52,000 lottery tickets.

What would be one's odds of losing all 52,000
Megamillions lotteries? That's 0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707
to the 52,000th power, which = ???

The Big Calculator says "Fatal error: Maximum
execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /var/www/calculator/nonavusefulcalc/big-number-calculator.php
on line 227

So, I suppose I would need a bigger calculator
if life extension ever transpires. Hmmm, I went
to the following website
https://keisan.casio.com/calculator
and entered
0.99999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707^52000
and pressed Execute. The answer is ...

.... 0.99982815674828302368945109564664457214716265050434
which =
99.982815674828302368945109564664457214716265050434%

So, that's better than the 99.9969% odds on
one's 108th birthday, 99.9828% odds on one's
518th birthday, something to look forward to
were one to have the good fortune to have
good health & mental fitness & finally, on one's
52,000th try at it, winning the Mega Millions ...

.... lottery, but then again, presuming the world
is in good shape, everyone having good health
& mental fitness on their 518th birthday would
be winners presuming all of the downsides of
life that can be overcome will have been over-
come by then.

On Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 3:10:43 PM UTC-5, observer wrote:

..> Follow-up to previous post at
..> https://groups.google.com/g/alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys/c/Sq9cqTwcR_4/m/EBb4QqylCQAJ
..>
..> Well, didn't buy a ticket 'til today. For fun,
..> comparing my ticket to the recent (last 20)
..> past lotteries:
..> https://www.megamillions.com/Winning-Numbers/Previous-Drawings.aspx
..>
..> I would give the picture on my other
..> numbers being among the last 20
..> winners, but I don't want to say too
..> much 'cause if I beat the odds, I plan
..> to try & remain anonymous. (-:
..>
..> Interesting that 60 & 66 were among
..> the lower 5 winning numbers in the
..> last 2 lotteries & the last 2 megaball
..> winning numbers were 16 & 15. Such
..> is the odd (at times) nature of random
..> numbers.
..>
..> I will say that 3 of my lower 5 numbers
..> on my randomly selected ticket have
..> been winners in the last 2 lotteries. (-:
..>
..> All of that has absolutely nothing to
..> do with my odds of winning this lot-
..> tery, which remain at 1 in 302.57535
..> million, no matter which numbers are
..> on my ticket.
..>
..> Of course, I suppose if one chooses
..> common numbers, like 2 -4 - 6 - 8 - 10
..> & 12 for the Megaball, odds are that a
..> lot of folks will choose those numbers
..> and if one wins, each winner would
..> have to share the winnings with a lot
..> of others.
..>
..> By the way, the display at the store
..> where I purchased the ticket displays
..> the current Megamillions lottery as
..> $999 Million 'cause that sign has the
..> Million written on the sign (unchange-
..> able) & in the changeable part doesn't
..> have the ability to display a number >
..> 999.
..>
..> As I wrote earlier in my posts, it's very
..> rare for powerball or megamillions to
..> go over a billion dollars. This is only
..> the 3rd time it has happened in mega-
..> millions history and it has happened
..> only once in powerball history.
..>
..> [clarifying inserts included in brackets]
..>
..> Billion dollar Powerball & Megamillions
..> lotteries
..> https://www.narcity.com/largest-lottery-jackpots-ever-billion-mega-millions-powerball
..>
..> #1: $1.586 Billion Powerball:
..>
..> The world's largest ever sum won in a lottery
..> was worth over $1.5 billion and was split be-
..> tween three different winners.
..>
..> On January 13, 2016, three California, Florida
..> and Tennessee residents became the winners
..> of the gigantic sum; best of all, they got to keep
..> all the money [referring to no state taxes, but
..> failing to state they all were hit with hefty fed-
..> eral taxes].
..>
..> Florida and Tennessee don't have a state in-
..> come tax, while California doesn't deduct taxes
..> from lottery winnings on tickets bought in-state,
..> reported AP.
..>
..> [Unstated, federal income tax hits everyone]
..>
..> #2: $1.537 Billion Mega Millions:
..>
..> On October 23, 2018, one lucky resident from
..> South Carolina became the winner of the world's
..> largest lottery jackpot in history to be won by a
..> single ticket.
..>
..> To say he was lucky is an understatement.
..>
..> The winner, who decided to remain anonymous,
..> actually let someone ahead of them in line to pur-
..> chase a Mega Millions ticket, scoring themselves
..> the winning ticket.
..>
..> [interesting, I suppose that person anonymously
..> told Hogan or someone else that, & if one is prone
..> to be skeptical or to question whether someone
..> is just claiming something that's not verified, one
..> would be prone to doubt that & the following state-
..> ment]
..>
..> The commission's executive director, Hogan Brown,
..> said in a statement that the winner "marvels at how
..> every decision made that day brought the winner to
..> the store, at that very moment."
..>
..> "A simple act of kindness led to an amazing out-
..> come."
..>
..> [i.e. technically, time of purchase has nothing what-
..> soever to do with random chance, & the winning tic-
..> ket is simply a matter of good luck, not timing or
..> kindness or good or evil, it's simply a matter of luck,
..> & had he cut in line or been angry or had any dispos-
..> ition whatsoever, luck is simply a matter of luck, ...
..>
..> ... no way of making it happen & the only sure way
..> of preventing it from happening regarding lotteries
..> is to not purchase a ticket. Also of note, instances
..> of bad things happening to some lottery winners,
..> sometimes bad consequences from winning, such
..> is life, sometimes losing would've been better]
..>
..> #3: $1.05 Billion Mega Millions:
..>
..> A four-member Detroit lottery club won the third-high-
..> est lottery jackpot amount of $1.05 billion on January
..> 22, 2021.
..>
..> After taxes reduction, the winners took home an imme-
..> diate lump sum of $557 million.
..>
..> [the four winning club members, $139,250,000
..> after taxes for each of the 4 winners.]
..>
..> An attorney for the club came out with a statement on
..> behalf of the winners saying, "This kind of money will
..> impact the families of our club members for genera-
..> tions to come. We plan to stay humble and pay it for-
..> ward through charitable giving in southeast Michigan."
..>
..> [Easily said, but the amount of charitable giving & the
..> entities each of them gave/give money to is probably
..> undisclosed, though of course, any of the 4 can say
..> how much & to whom they donate money to, that's
..> simply a matter of personal choice.]
..>
..> \*--- --- ---*/

Yet another follow-up:

Tonight's estimated MegaMillions Lottery
grand prize has increased to ...
https://www.megamillions.com/

Next Estimated Jackpot
$1.1 Billion
CASH OPTION: $648.2 MILLION
Next Drawing:
Friday, 7/29 @ 11 p.m. ET

Interesting, I viewed a video where it was
stated that various public benefits were
derived from the profits made from lot-
tery ticket sells.

Difficult to track down exactly what the
breakdown on those profit distributions
is and I'm disappointed in that because
it seems to me, for those who support
positive causes, that would be an addi-
tional motivator to overcome the ...

.... resistance to buying lottery tickets
that's present in many due to the over-
whelming odds against winning, know-
ing that purchase profits go to specific
beneficial causes.

Oh well, I suppose those that run the
lotteries presume 'greed' is the sole
motivation that individuals need, & it
appears the angle I mentioned above
isn't considered all that important by
the individuals who run lotteries.

That's unfortunate, in my view. Maybe
they'd rather not mention that as they
prefer that persons purchasing lottery
tickets just presume that almost the
entire ticket purchase goes to the 1 in
24 who win one of the prizes, most ...

.... of the motivation residing in the
enormous interest in the minuscule
odds (1 in 302,575,350 ) of winning
the grand prize.

Here's what I found from one article at
the megamillions.com website:

"... Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45
states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S.
Virgin Islands.

Drawings are held each Tuesday and
Friday.

Half of the proceeds from the sale of
each Mega Millions ticket remains in
the state where the ticket was sold,
where the money supports lottery
beneficiaries and retailer commis-
sions.

Lottery revenues are allocated differ-
ently in each jurisdiction. ..."

* --- * --- * --- *

Someone won what elevated itself to be
the 3rd highest in U.S. lotteries history,
estimated at $1.28 billion, with a lump-
sum cash option of an estimated $742.2
million, one ticket bought in the Chicago
area.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/us/mega-millions-lottery-jackpot-saturday/index.html

Congrats to that individual, although it's
possible that it was a multi-person winner,
so until the winner(s) is(are) announced,
we can only guess about that.

The winning ticket was bought at a Speed-
way gas station in Des Plaines, roughly a
20-mile drive northwest of Chicago. It is
located just north of O'Hare International
Airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Plaines,_Illinois

Hey, I've been there (long ago, I remember
going up one night in what was then called
the Sears Tower, that was sometime during
the 1980s, don't recall when exactly. I recall
being impressed with the lighting in the down-
town Chicago streets; the Sears Tower was
renamed the Willis Tower in 2009).

My ticket? I hit -0- of the winning numbers,
one of the 99.999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707%
of purchased ticket numbers that didn't win.

--- --- ---

Follow-up, correction to be closing state-
ment:

On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 11:10:20 AM UTC-5, observer wrote:

..> Someone won what elevated itself to be
..> the 3rd highest in U.S. lotteries history,
..> estimated at $1.28 billion, with a lump-
..> sum cash option of an estimated $742.2
..> million, one ticket bought in the Chicago
..> area.
..> https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/30/us/mega-millions-lottery-jackpot-saturday/index.html
..>
..> Congrats to that individual, although it's
..> possible that it was a multi-person winner,
..> so until the winner(s) is(are) announced,
..> we can only guess about that.
..>
..> The winning ticket was bought at a Speed-
..> way gas station in Des Plaines, roughly a
..> 20-mile drive northwest of Chicago. It is
..> located just north of O'Hare International
..> Airport.
..> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Plaines,_Illinois
..>
..> Hey, I've been there (long ago, I remember
..> going up one night in what was then called
..> the Sears Tower, that was sometime during
..> the 1980s, don't recall when exactly. I recall
..> being impressed with the lighting in the down-
..> town Chicago streets; the Sears Tower was
..> renamed the Willis Tower in 2009).
..>
..> My ticket? I hit -0- of the winning numbers,
..> one of the 99.999999669503811199425201028438040309628659439707%
..> of purchased ticket numbers that didn't win.

Actually, I should have said "that didn't win
the grand prize". Since your odds of winning
any of the lesser amounts is 1 in 24, I'm also
one of the 95.83333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333%
of purchased ticket numbers that didn't win
any amount.

..>
..> *\~*--- --- ---*/~*

I know, I'm obsessing, but hey, I just noticed
that the winning Megaball number of '14' on
07/29/2022 was odd in that the previous
Megaball number was '15' and the Megaball
number 2 lotteries ago was '16'.

Things that make you go hmmmmm, again. (-:

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