Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/09/news...pot/index.html

$900 million Powerball is really worth $558 million -- and that's BEFORE taxes.

Whole thing is a scam.
The odds and payouts are publicly announced beforehand. Therefore, it isn't a scam.

On the other hand, unless the jackpot is above about $2 or $3 billion, it's a bad EV play. But what other opportunity does an ordinary person have to become a multi-millionaire with little to no effort? That's why most people buy those tickets.