re: Cashier at store told me one guy has spent $4000 on Powerball

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According to this article you'd have to spend 300 million on lotto tickets to get 50/50 odds

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To be exact, you would have buy 50% of the possible combinations, so at $2 per combination, you would have to buy $292,201,338.

The trouble part of that article, is this incorrect meme that it was being spread on social media:

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A meme circulating on social media claims that if the Powerball winnings ($1.3 billion at the time) were evenly distributed among the United States’ population of roughly 300 million, everyone would receive $4.33 million, solving poverty. But that does not add up: 1.3 billion divided by 300 million would actually leave $4.33 per person. (Side note: The country’s population is currently estimated at 325 million).

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$4.3 million times 300 million citizens = $1.3 QUADRILLION.

AND it's no wonder people think the solution is to take from the rich; they have no conceptualization of math whatsoever.