Over the last 10 draws, there's been 1 draw with 3 winners in Powerball division two, 2 with 2, 6 with 1, and 1 with 0. So it is quite likely that someone will get it all next draw, or share it with one or two others.

If it goes to division 3, then you may or may not get at least $1,000.000. Division 3 is 5 numbers plus the powerball -- worth a crack.

So I did the math... a $12 ticket gives you 1 in 1.5M chance of getting a share of the $44M.

TL;DR:

Prize pool goes from $38M to $44M = $6M added. Lotto pays out 1/3 of its takings in prizes, so that means $18M.

Each dollar you spend has a 1 in 18M chance of sharing the big prize. 

If you spend $12 to buy a Lotto ticket, you have 12/18M chance of being a winner (i.e. 1 in 1.5M).

Or maybe my maths is wrong.

If I won 44M

Would give the parents 4M just to round the amount down.

Buy a couple of mates in my home town a house each.

Have 1M to play with then leave the rest (38M) in the bank and live off the interest.  I would cut my hours at work (maybe 20 a week) just to mix it up with the common people.  Then after my cat has gone I would go and live in a different country each year till I was to old to travel.

At that stage I would waste it on hookers and blow  :)

WyleECoyoteNZ:

 

To start with, I'd buy this:

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=11741756

 

Not, the NZ Herald, ugh, but the subject matter of the story

 

Is this the car that was $250K / year to insure? I'd imagine tyres and servicing would be in 5 figures as well, not to mention fuel. Still, with $43.4M in my pocket, I could afford to run it for the rest of my life. (Which might also be quite short).

frankv:

 

So I did the math... a $12 ticket gives you 1 in 1.5M chance of getting a share of the $44M.

 

Actually its a little worse than that.

The chance to win powerball Div 1 is about 1 in 38 million
The chance to win powerball Div 2 is about 1 in 6.4 million

So assuming it is going to go off in Div 1 or Div 2  you chance of winning a share of the jackpot is somewhere past 1 in 6.4 million.

It's like tossing a coin 22 times in a row and getting heads each time.
Or calling the correct top 4 cards on a shuffled deck of cards.

Seems easy to me

WyleECoyoteNZ:

 

To start with, I'd buy this:

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motoring/news/article.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=11741756

 

Not, the NZ Herald, ugh, but the subject matter of the story

 

I'm pretty the herald is worth quite a lot less than that car (and yes I mean the entire enterprise not a single copy) ;-P

Viper SRT. Set kids up. Setup AP for our home salary. Retire. Look for a rewarding volunteer position for the disabled. 

Cycle for fitness, travel in winter, thats about it. 

Fred99:

 

There's no real fun or pleasure to be had from flaunting wealth to the wealthy, it all gets nasty and competitive, so I'd do my best to lose any wealthy friends I have ASAP.

 

I'd invite some poor and homeless to a BBQ and entertain them by burning stacks of $100 bills on the outdoor brazier while I read quotations from Ayn Rand, explaining that greed is an ennobling virtue. They'd be told that they're welcome to share my pleasure in burning the cash, but if they dare try to retrieve ash from the embers, they'll be dealt with harshly for taking something that's mine.

 

 

 

 

 

Years ago, we knew someone who won big. It ended up as cars, caravans, trips, houses, and prats.

Me, I'd be the same. 

Another story, we knew Ian Flemings nephew. Dad would tell me he'd got money pi%%ing out his a$$. His young relly of some sort came to NZ to stay on the farm for a bit. 

Talked like rich. Great people. Never flaunted it, it was normal for them. 

10% to charity. All family housing needs/debts taken care of. 1 million available as on-call cash. The rest put into some sort of investment for the kids but I'd live off the interest, quit my job and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (within reason of course).

There are a lot of things I would like to do with $44 mil. Hire a bunch of street kids to literally paint the town red while people are sleeping. Give every SPCA cat and dog in the country a home. Buy the election and send National to the wilderness. Turn expensive cars into partially melted down works of art. Buy everyone in every pub a vegetarian hamburger. Subsidise rail passenger services throughout NZ. Set up cheaper competing airlines everywhere Air NZ has a domestic service. Invite John Cleese back to Palmerston North. Undergo plastic surgery to give me a long, fluffy tail.

I'd give Trump a job as a shoe shine boy after he loses the election tomorrow.

Dratsab:

 

10% to charity. All family housing needs/debts taken care of. 1 million available as on-call cash. The rest put into some sort of investment for the kids but I'd live off the interest, quit my job and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted (within reason of course).

 

It is often the people who don't know how to handle money, that win the big amounts, and then blow it all. People obviously like reading stories about that, as you read so many of trashy news websites. I wouldn't mind seeing a system, where the winnings are locked in and released in chunks over the persons life, but they get paid interest on a weekly basis too. 

Geektastic:

 

Buy bad art that costs too much and burn it to save generations yet to come...?

 

That's far too kind IMO.

Buy good art and burn it, burn it really well, post selfies of burning ceremony, wear a tee-shirt with existentialist message, become an artist.  Thank the lotto losers for losing.

Rikkitic:

 

 Invite John Cleese back to Palmerston North.

 

Oh yeah - that's got to be one of the most sadomasochistic pairings that money could arrange.  Not sure who'd be playing which role, but it'd be fun to sit back and see how it pans out.