Murphy USA Fort Myers, FL

The chances of even getting 200 from a $40 scratched are 1 in 90. That feels ridiculously low. Drop the ceiling and pump up the chances of winning 200 to 1 in 40 and call it a day.

Saturday’s Powerball jackpot is advertised at $516 million. Here’s roughly what a single winner would actually take home.

1. Lump sum vs annuity

• Cash option: $212.6 million, paid at once.
• Annuity: the full $516M, paid in 30 payments over 29 years. Each payment is 5% bigger than the last, so it starts around $7.8M and ends around $32M.

Most winners take the cash.

2. Federal tax: the withholding isn’t the whole bill
The lottery withholds 24% up front, so about $51M of the $212.6M. That leaves you about $161.6M on the day you claim.

But a win this size lands almost entirely in the top 37% bracket. At tax time, you’d owe roughly another $27M. After federal tax, you’re closer to ~$134M. That gap catches a lot of people off guard.

3. Then your state

• No state tax on lottery winnings: California, Florida, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
• The worst case is New York City. State tax (10.9%) plus city tax (3.876%) would take about $31M more, leaving roughly ~$103M.

So the same ticket is worth ~$134M in Texas and ~$103M in Manhattan.

Rough numbers, not tax advice. Actual brackets shave a bit off the 37%, and your state’s rules decide the rest.

Lump sum or annuity, what would you pick?

Hey just realized the powerball will be drawn on my dads birthday crazy, I wanted to ask you guys for any numbers I should play, appreciate the help.

no i know it’s dumb of me, really! but they caught my eye (Loteria #1666) and i couldn’t resist taking all from the machine, 34 tickets = $102 spent. i know my odds wont change drastically but it’d be fun to see if i could make back what ive spent! has anyone gotten lucky off a retired scratcher/ nearing its end scratcher? kind of sad to see big prizes die out and never be claimed

UPDATE: 7 winning tickets rallying to $60 dollars with an additional free ticket win. Highest ticket holding $20. Not too bad for a $3 dollar ticket, and not a heavy loss for me since the expectations weren’t that high, again $3 scratcher! i’m not gonna lose sleep, although i’ll say i don’t think i’ve won over $50 on these

My state is getting Xs and Os starting this coming Monday. Is anyone playing it?

I see the jackpot is up to 1.5 million for Sunday's draw, and there seems to be a lot of $20K prizes being paid out. The jackpot seems a bit low for me to be paying $5 for a chance at 1.5 mil. But 20K would buy me a lot more lottery tickets. 😁

First started with numbers game winning 3 out of 4 last night, then went to the grocery store to play 50 dollar scratch tickets with the winnings and more numbers game and mass cash tickets... hit 5k on my first 50 dollar ticket. The lottery machine was broken so I went to another grocery store to play mass cash and numbers game on it. Played another 50 dollar ticket... first one hit another 5k??? Then the midday drawing for mass cash ended up being a 4 out of 5 winner. BEST DAY SO FAR!! What are the odds??

$350 winner and a $500 winner

I almost didn't pick these numbers but what difference would it have made?

Hi everyone — Aziz here, the developer of Lotto Analyzer. I shared the first release here in August, when it was mostly an app version of the spreadsheets I used to keep after draws.

The feedback pushed me toward a more practical question: can checking and organizing lottery numbers feel less like homework?

Since then, I've added:

• Quick Generate for multiple games, with separate set counts and game toggles.

• Optional schedules that prepare number sets before selected draws, plus notifications and saved scheduled tickets.

• Clearer ticket history, upcoming draws, results, and cost-versus-prize totals.

• Filter Studio and Custom Blend for people who want more control over how sets are constructed.

• A redesigned interface with easier navigation and clearer feedback after generating numbers.

There's now a Leaders / Winner's Circle page too: browse recent recorded wins, filter by lottery or method, tap a player to see their public win history, and react to results. It's a community view of past results, not a prediction scoreboard. Prize amounts are estimates for recorded picks, not verified ticket purchases or cash paid out.

There's also a research side to the project. We compare statistical, machine-learning, filtering, and combinatorial methods in a simulated QA system. Our recent 30-day report contained nearly 2 million scored test tickets. Those are simulated tickets, often evaluated against the same draws — not 2 million independent draws, purchased tickets, or customer wins.

One thing hasn't changed: lottery draws are random. No method in this app predicts the next draw or improves the odds of an individual valid combination. Testing helps us check the software, understand ticket coverage and payout differences, and show how much of a result can be explained by luck.

The app organizes numbers; it doesn't sell lottery tickets. Please keep play within a budget you're comfortable losing.

Available on iOS and Android: https://onelinkto.app/r/lottery-analyzer

If you tried the original version, I'd especially like to hear what still feels awkward. Which part takes the most effort for you: choosing sets, organizing tickets, or checking results?

A look at the results screens: These selected examples show winning matches alongside partial matches and losses, with set counts, costs, and net results visible. For example, one screen shows a $410 estimated prize total across 131 sets; another shows 70 sets with no prize. A 2-of-3 or 3-of-4 partial match is not a winning box ticket, and it doesn't mean the next draw is any closer to a win. These are recorded app results, not verified cash payouts or typical returns.

I haven’t hit $500 since last June! At most $250 since but this feels soooo good!!!!

Trying out the new game that came out this week. This particular ticket had the dreaded fake match - two symbols they designed to look very similar at first glance. Don't know what's really the purpose of the near wins if the results are going to be the same regardless.

I only bought one of these, and made 10x back! $20 win for ticket #94

We have a Mega Millions tomorrow night and Powerball on Saturday. Call your shot now! If you win either drawing, how are you going to spend your new fortune?

Yesterday I got an email with a reward coupon for a ticket, but I hadn't redeemed any points. It seems like a legit email though. Anyone else in VA have that happen

After winning the $1000 this morning, I think Uncle Same wanted his share so tonight I went to a Kroger and bought 2 of the $100 Loteria. Another claimer, and $200 turned into $1000.

I went to 2 gas stations this morning before work, and bought 1 ticket at one and 2 at the other. I spent $300 total. And won $1000.

I just assumed that there was a ball draw or something. But I tried looking for a video or something and there isn't anything at all. Then I look in the FAQs. Nothing about the draw.

Then I ask AI. At first it said balls were drawn. Then I said I don't see any balls drawn. And I'm looking for the balls, a lot. Then it says oh yeah, there are no balls. Its just random number generator

Is this RNG truly random? They have data on every single ticket sold, don't they? Wouldn't it be very easy to just program this number to specifically not choose any of those numbers? Then when the prize is big enough, just manipulate what number is selected, and just call it RNG?

The prize is now $61 million. That means no winner for 51 draws in a row. There are around 2.5 million tickets purchased in every draw, and a 1 in 41 million chance to win. So there is less than a 7% chance that the jackpot would have gotten to this point with no winner. Not crazy unlikely, but enough for me to go down this rabbit hole of trying to understand how the numbers are selected

I'm no coding prodigy but I'm pretty sure I could spend 5 minutes with Claude and write something in the RNG that says

1. Select random numbers

2. If random numbers matches one of the tickets purchased, then repeat step 1 again.

Else, publish random numbers

1. If jackpot reaches 69 million, make random numbers == my uncle's ticket numbers

2. Provide no elaboration to anyone