Check the math: That poverty-solving lottery meme is wrong

I fully intend to win the 1.4 billion dollar Powerball jackpot this coming Wednesday.

The drawing will be shown locally Wednesday night on WCCT – TV around 10:57 p.m.

Canadians tell us the victor might as well be one of them-when you convert the prize to their currency, the jackpot is even bigger.

Loveland resident George Pilmanis is allowing himself to dream. “Not just from friends and family, but from total strangers”, said financial expert Henry Gallardo with Strategic Wealth Advisors. “You could probably knock me over with a feather if I won something”.

But if he did “win the big one”…

“We’ve had a few Canadians come through and try their luck”, he said.

With more people rushing to buy a ticket the probability increases of multiple winners to split the prize with. Other winning tickets worth $50,000 each were sold at Kings Oceanside C-Store; Citgo in Mineola; 7-Eleven in Long Beach, at 969 W. Beech St.; Centereach Deli in Centereach; Stop & Shop in Medford; Stop & Shop in West Babylon; Huntington Shell in Huntington; and Jinal Card & Gift in Nesconset.

There’s a chance we may never know the lucky ticket holder. To get that much, winners have to take payments over 30 years. (I’m going to buy) “me about 100 acres of land, build a new house and build me a shelter to put all my stray animals in it”. Once those numbers are picked, players must choose one Powerball number from 1 to 26.

“When I saw the jackpot had climbed so high, I decided I should take a chance and play”, said Shelton, according to a Monday press release from Michigan Lottery Connect.

It’s the official app for the Mega Millions and Powerball games.

World Class Bakers, which has been in business for 15 years, said patrons have been coming in from all over the Greater Toronto Area for the tickets.

And while the old fashioned paper and pen system works, he adds, “If you’re trying to manage a large number of people and a repeated number of these kinds of lotteries, then I think it could be pretty effective, and a lot of fun, too”.

After inserting her money into the Virginia Lottery kiosk at York’s Kroger Tuesday afternoon, the machine automatically generated four random rows of numbers – each containing a Powerball number to complete the sequence.

MS state Rep. Alyce Clarke, a Democrat from Jackson, has repeatedly sponsored a lottery bill, but she said religious opposition always kills the idea.