alasta:

 

I honestly have no idea what I would do with one million let alone 50 million.

 

You could sponsor the rebuild the Island Bay cycle way and we could name it in your honor. 😀

sbiddle:

 

alasta:

 

I honestly have no idea what I would do with one million let alone 50 million.

 

 

You could sponsor the rebuild the Island Bay cycle way and we could name it in your honor. 😀

 

50mil would juuuuust be enough to live comfortably for a couple of years :)

I don't need 50 mill, just winning $50 would make me happy. 😁

I won $30 on Wednesday. I suspect that's it as far as Lotto wins go for me for a while, but I did 'reinvest' it for Saturday.

Happy to split the big one with 40 other people. No worries. You're welcome :)

xpd:

 

Be a lot of things Id buy/do, but think even 2 million would satisfy me with change left over.

 

Yeah, I think that if 2 million doesn't satisfy someone, then no amount will.

xpd:

Be a lot of things Id buy/do, but think even 2 million would satisfy me with change left over.

 

For 99.98% (approximately) of people, lotto is escapism and dreams.  For the select few that lady luck smiles upon, they get to potentially live out some of those dreams.

The catch seems to be that a large number of big winners end up back where they started some time later having spent it all.
I am reasonably sure that most of us on here are clever enough to set ourselves up for the future rather than just blowing the lot on shiny new toys that we then can't afford to run.  Most people lack the financial awareness to be able to do things like investing for their future in a useful manner.  It's not taught by default and unless one seeks the knowledge, it's not learned either.

It's down to maths and money.

Maths: Each Lotto + Powerball line costs $1.50. So if you bought every single possibility of numbers (~38 million combinations) to guarantee you'd win, that would cost around $57m and you'd still lose out with the $50m jackpot. Therefore Lotto will never have a jackpot higher than $57m unless they increase the cost of playing per line again.

Money: It's well known to Lotto that high jackpots statistically sell more tickets. This is why there's never an incentive to cap first division low at say $10m and bump up the prizes in the lower divisions - it just doesn't translate to sales. So like any business, you do what makes you money. They don't exist to satisfy lower division winners as much as a lot of people would like to happen.

50m plenty? I would not have I single luxury but money would be gone.

House + bach for myself, another for mum. dentist and wooh i'm down to 1m left for retirement/survival.

I think the amount is fair...it gives a few people the chance to dream big and being a Must Win weekend it'll have a positive effect (albeit short-lived) on those that are able to gamble sensibly. 

For the poor minority that can't help themselves and spend more than they can afford, it wouldn't matter whether it's $50m or $20m - either way they'd blow their load on the tickets to lose. 

I do agree that the way in which the tiers are distributed needs work though...the gap between 1st Div and 2nd Div is huge and should be tightened slightly, but not too much or it becomes a less compelling case to win the "big one"...

I'm looking forward to buying my new semi-country home and a bunch of rentals, plus a nice new car for both myself and my wife. I'll give some to my brother's family and my mum and dad. 

The conundrum is: Where does one draw the line? Friends? Who? Just "these friends", or wider? 

But I'm really just a dedicated donor and dreamer. I've never won more than a few hundred and expect that's how it'll stay - but you have to be in to win. Can't dream unless you have a ticket. 

The bigger the jackpot the more sales they get, and remember, all Lotto NZ profits are returned to the NZ Lottery Grants Board for distribution to the community and are a major source of funding for Sport New Zealand, Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and thousands of essential community services and projects.

So capping the jackpot at say $10M will mean less sales and less money for the community.

minigopher17:

 

It's down to maths and money.

 

Maths: Each Lotto + Powerball line costs $1.50. So if you bought every single possibility of numbers (~38 million combinations) to guarantee you'd win, that would cost around $57m and you'd still lose out with the $50m jackpot. Therefore Lotto will never have a jackpot higher than $57m unless they increase the cost of playing per line again.

 

However, if you paid $57m and got 38 m lines, you'd be guaranteed to win - but you couldn't guarantee that you wouldn't share it.  So if one other person won too, you'd be down $28.5m.  So it's not capped below $57 m to stop that behavior.

We could all have $11 I suppose....!

Many things in life are unfair and many things seem like poop. However winning Lotto would fix this part  Life is like a crap sandwich, the more dough you have the less crap you have to deal with.