The Mega Millions jackpot drawing for Jan. 15 has actually soared to US$ 750 million and counting. This makes it the second largest pot in Mega Millions history-- exceeded just by the $1.537 billion winning ticket in October 2018-- and the fifth biggest lotto prize ever in the U.S

. In the middle of the 20th century, when lotteries initially started in the U.S., they were sold to states a benefit to the American public. That suggests that larger and larger prizes should imply more tax dollars to spend on civil services like education.

However that isn't taking place. So what's actually going on?

Big cash, tiny chances

Initially, let's look at how lottery prizes get so big. Considering that Sept. 15, 2020, week after week, no one has drawn the winning numbers and the unclaimed pot rolls over into the following week. As the tickets keep getting purchased, the pot gets bigger.

You too have the possibility to win the one of the biggest Mega Millions jackpots ever with the easy purchase of a $2 ticket. Nevertheless, your possibilities are quite slim. With a 1 in 300 million chance of selecting the matching numbers, you are 3 times most likely to be killed by a vending machine.

[Expertise in your inbox. Register for The Conversation's newsletter and get skilled takes on today's news, every day.]

An easier way to really cover your head around these odds is to envision a bath tub overflowing with white rice. Take one grain of rice, paint it gold and after that bury it someplace in the bathtub of rice. Now, have someone walk in the restroom door, blindfold them and have them attempt, in one fortunate dip, to pick out that single golden grain of rice.

According to a 2016 survey, about half of Americans play the lotto today, compared to almost 70% in the 1980s. That means the lottery requires to extract more money from fewer people-- a distressing pattern for lottery game runners.

Mega Millions decided to reduce everyone's possibilities of winning, in order to grow the jackpots larger. Before 2017, players picked five numbers in between 1 and 75 and after that one number in between 1 and 15. Now, each gamer chooses 5 numbers in between 1 and 70 and after that one number in between 1 and 25. This increases your opportunities of matching 5 numbers and receiving some sort of prize, while decreasing your possibilities of winning the entire shebang. What's more, the rate of a ticket has actually doubled.

Apparently, as the jackpot grows, more people want to buy a ticket. According to the Bureau of Labor Data, in 2017 and 2018, the typical American spent simply under $70 a month on the lotto or wagering swimming pools. And since just about half of the country plays, the average amount invested per gamer is greater.

Where the money goes

Mega Millions earnings are split in between 47 lottery jurisdictions-- 45 states, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Overall, 27 states allocate some or all lotto profits for education. In D.C., the lotto dollars go to a basic fund; in Colorado, the funds approach environmental protection; and in Kansas, some of the cash spends for juvenile detention facilities.

The lotto was promoted as a method to produce more cash for education-- however a lot of state legislatures have not been using the money as additional financing. Instead, they utilize the lottery game money to pay for the education spending plan, spending the cash that would have been utilized on education if there wasn't a lotto budget on other things. As an outcome, public schools rarely get a spending plan boost.

An April 2018 research study from the North Carolina Center for Public law Research study revealed that numerous states-- including California, Florida and Michigan-- simply substitute lottery game earnings for typical appropriations. As of 2016, North Carolina committed a smaller sized part of its total spending plan to education than it did before starting the lottery game.

With states like New York getting a record $10 billion in sales from the lottery game in 2019, that is a quite darn huge bait and switch.

This does not necessarily mean that it's time to ax the lottery. However it does ask the question: Is lottery game money a good thing for a state? It does fund some federal government services, however it isn't always clear what. And the harm of betting dependency needs to be considered somehow.

For now, I'm off to purchase a ticket for this Mega Millions prize. more info I mean, someone's got ta win ... This is an upgraded version of a short article initially released on Oct. 20, 2018.