NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
One in 76 million. That's not so bad, is it?
Those were the odds of winning the jackpot in the Big Game lottery, which pools money from Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Virginia. The jackpot, announced Tuesday night, soared to a drool-inducing $325 million, the second-largest on record, after nobody picked the winning six numbers in last Friday's drawing, the 19th straight drawing without a winner.
With the stock market and economy on a roller-coaster ride, and corporate accountants and Wall Street analysts losing more face than an aging Hollywood starlet, the idea of solving all one's financial woes with the simple investment of a $1 ticket is alluring.
Unfortunately, you're about 17 times more likely to be killed by lightning this year than you are to win that jackpot.
And even if you do win it, you're not going to get all of it.
For one thing, you'll only get the $325 million if you're willing to get it doled out over 26 years, or $12.5 million a year. Uncle Sam will take 27 percent of that, thank you very much, leaving you with a meager $9.1 million a year, or $236.6 million. And that's all before state taxes, which range from 3 percent in Illinois to 7 percent in Maryland.
If you take the money in a lump sum, you'll get a lot less -- $174 million, or just $127 million after federal taxes.
The biggest winners from the Big Game lottery, of course, are the states themselves. The states take in about $2 billion a year each in lottery revenue, and about $200 million, or 10 percent, of that comes from Big Game ticket sales alone.
The Georgia state lottery said it had sold 12.2 million tickets since Saturday and estimates it will sell between 1.3 million and 1.5 million tickets per hour in the peak hours leading up to Tuesday's drawing.
The pace of sales only accelerates when big jackpots start making the news. Before Friday night's drawing, when the jackpot was $220 million, the New Jersey state lottery estimated it was selling about 3,000 tickets a minute, spiking up to 6,000 tickets a minute during peak lunch-time and after-work hours.
The states stand to make even more money in May, when they launch their new Mega Millions game, which will take the seven states in the Big Game and add New York and Ohio. The Big Game minimum jackpot of $5 million will be doubled, and the biggest jackpots could swell to $500 million.
"The bigger the jackpot is, the more tickets we sell, and the more we raise for the important education programs we fund here in Georgia," said Georgia Lottery President Rebecca Paul.
Of course, the odds of winning the big jackpot in the Mega Millions game will also rise significantly, to about one in 130 million.
If you interested in buying a ticket for a future drawing, don't make the mistake of thinking that buying more tickets will give you more of a chance to win.
"You can't buy enough tickets to appreciably change your chances of winning. You'd have to buy 76 million tickets," Paul said. "It only takes one to win. Just buy a ticket or two and have fun."
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And having fun is probably the best -- maybe the only -- reason for playing the lottery. It's certainly not an effective financial-planning tool.
"It's a little bit of a regressive tax; the lower someone's income is, the more likely they are to see the lottery as a ticket out," said Pat Jennerjohn, a certified financial planner with Focused Finances in Oakland, Calif. "I don't oppose it for recreation, but I oppose it if you think that's the only way you're going to make it. It's throwing good money after bad."
More constructive would be paying more to employer-provided retirement plans and IRAs, Jennerjohn said.
If you do hit the jackpot, get ready for your life to change dramatically.
"Wait one year before you do anything, and hire an objective advisor and an attorney," Jennerjohn said. "And unplug your phone."
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