Should you buy all lottery combinations?

Adding to the largest in international history $1.6 Billion Lottery Craze

For the first time ever, buying all possible tickets guarantees a wining: with only 292 million possible combinations, you need only $584 million to buy all combinations to guarantee winning the $1.6 billion.

However, there are a few catches:

  • Multiple winners are possible, so may have to split your jackpot
  • If you buy 1 ticket every second, you need 9 years to buy every ticket.
  • The Jackpot is paid over 30 years. If you choose one-time lump payment, you’ll receive only a little over the half of the sum, or just $900 million.
  • You have to pay taxes on your winnings. Depending on your jurisdiction, you will likely lose about 40%.
  • So even if you are the sole winner of the jackpot, as a one-time after-tax payment, you’ll get only about $360 million.
  • So if you buy every combination, you’ll lose about $220 million, and the loss can be much larger if more than one ticket wins.