Time to start dreaming again. No winners in record Lotto Texas jackpot Associated Press AUSTIN -- Texans will have a chance for a record jackpot of an estimated $100 million on Saturday after there were no winners tonight in the Lotto Texas drawing. Wednesday's jackpot totaled $87 million, topping the record $85 million set in 2001. The jackpot, which hasn't been hit since February, is now the highest jackpot in the country, even outpacing the multistate game Mega Millions, which has an estimated $85 million jackpot after no one won Tuesday's drawing. But hold on to those letters of resignation -- the odds of winning are almost 1 in 47 million. "This is the kind of Lotto jackpot that gets the attention of players not only in Texas, but also in our neighboring states and in Mexico," said Reagan Greer, executive director of the Lottery Commission. By 9 p.m., tickets sales hit a rate of about 15,522 per minute. For last Saturday's drawing when the jackpot was at $81 million, sales peaked just after 8 p.m. at a rate of 13,000 per minute. In Dallas, Shane Allison, 30, bought $10 in Lotto tickets just days after getting laid off. "It would be a good time for me to win it," Allison said. "You would think I would be holding on to my money. But, hey, that's what a severance package is for." Michael Westbrooks said he rarely buys lottery tickets, but the high jackpot and an office pool got him to the store. "There's about 30 of us in my office and we're all buying one," Westbrooks said. "Then we'll split whatever we win." Extravagant jackpots drive up ticket sales, making this week's numbers a relief to Texas lottery officials who feared sales would suffer after the state recently began participating in Mega Millions. "Sales are much higher in Lotto Texas, there's a higher interest level and higher allegiance, loyalty to game," Greer said. "But both are performing well." About 30 cents of every dollar in sales goes to the Foundation School Fund, used to finance the state's public schools.
My aunt in League City will be playing for sure and all I ask of her is a new ride and some spending cash.
why don't we set up a lotto pot for the next drawing? 5 or 10 bucks a person via paypal. i'd set it up but i don't have a scanner to verify the fact that i bought the tix. maybe someone that everybody deems honest. anyhow, just a suggestion. don't even know if it's legal to do that on here.
this just confirms why i won't play lotto. the very fact that it's gotten to $100 million means we've had multiple games where NO ONE in the entire state has won. this is a pretty big state, at last count.
The prize pool is up to $100 million and it's STILL not profitable to play in terms of mathematical expectation... or something.
The lottery is truly, as a close friend of mine calls it, "the poor people's tax". However, I still always play when it hits triple digits. I have a gig down in Sinton TX this weekend (there is a biker rally going on down there) so I'm sure I will find some convenience store down there and plunk down five bucks on some quick picks.
About 30 cents of every dollar in sales goes to the Foundation School Fund, used to finance the state's public schools.
You might say the lotto has more ecomonic value than a las vegas game. Because the opportunity cost is equal to a social value. That's something measurable as a return. Whereas in Vegas your money has no return value. The playings fees go into anothere man's pocket. Which gives you no value in return.
Not true. My money lost in Vegas has built some really nice hotels and casinos that I enjoy visiting.
Plus Las Vegas casinos have to pay huge government taxes and I'm sure those funds are appropriated properly.
No winner in Texas Lottery; jackpot up to $120 million Associated Press DALLAS - People with lotto fever will have a few more days to try their luck at Lotto Texas: there were no winners in Saturday night's record $100 million drawing. In the final hour before the drawing, Texans and those who hoped to get lucky in the Lone Star State snatched up 28,060 tickets a minute, apparently undeterred by the one-in-47.7 million odds of winning. Total sales leading up to the drawing topped $21 million, according to the Texas Lottery Commission. No ticket matched the winning numbers of 10-15-20-29-35 and bonus ball 16, pushing the next drawing Wednesday up to $120 million - the highest in the country. The multi-state Mega Millions game, which includes Texas, tied the $100 million jackpot after no one matched all numbers in Friday's drawing. The drawing for the estimated $100 million Mega Millions jackpot will be Tuesday night. Dawn Nettles, a self-declared Lottery Commission watchdog who lives in Garland, said Lotto officials made it harder to win when four balls were added to the game in May 2003. Before the change, the odds of winning were one in 25.8 million. Nettles keeps track of winners and odds in her online publication and newsletter ``The Lotto Report.'' Texas Lottery spokesman Bobby Heith said Lotto games are winnable, and designed to be fun. In Saturday's drawing, there were hundreds of thousands of winning tickets. Though none won the jackpot, 27 tickets matched five numbers for a prize of $7,017. Meanwhile, 173,636 matched one number plus the bonus ball for a prize of $3. Even with the tougher odds, there was a $70 million winner Jan. 31. And 24 drawings later, nine people in Arlington split $12 million.
I thought the lottery got profitable to play at around ~33 million or so(i.e. - you could buy every possible lottery combination and still make money). Of course, they'd have to print like 150 tickets a second to make it in time for the next deadline - so, it's not really reasonable.
The lottery is *theoretically* profitable at $50 million. However, that assumes that there is only ONE winner. The real problem lies in the fact that if you have to share your $100 million prize with 3 or 4 people, it no longer becomes profitable to play since you are getting less than $50 million (before taxes!).
