You Could Buy Every Combo Possible to Win Mega Millions and Still Lose Money

Business Insider did the math and answered the question a lot of us have had for years.  Yes, you could buy every possible number combination for tonight's Mega Millions drawing for $1.6 billion.

And yes, while it would appear you'd win some money, you'd actually come out a loser; possibly losing BIG time.

To kick things off, you'd need to do some major recruiting.  You'll need to find investors to help you purchase the 302,575,350 lotto tickets you need to cover every number combination.  That's a pretty sizable investment!  You're going to need a little over $605 million.  Then, you'll need nearly 700,000 people to work 10 solid hours today filling out lottery tickets for you today just to submit all those combos.

Now, once you've won the $1.6 billion, you'll want to opt for the lump sum payout, which is around $904 million.  But because of all those other combos you bought, you'll have won a lot of the secondary jackpots, like for matching five numbers but not the final ball, which would net you roughly $75 million more.

That brings your total winnings up to $979 million, which looks pretty good, since you'd be showing an immediate $374 million in profit.  But, then Uncle Sam would want to talk to you about your new tax bill, which is going to cost you approximately 40% of your winnings.  That takes you down to a mere $587.4 million, which is a loss of $18 million.

Course, that's assuming you were the ONLY winner.  What if you had another winner and you had to split the money?  Or two?  Or three?  See where this is headed.