Powerball

Sandra Hayes of St. Louis has settled into a version of her life that she would have called a fantasy just six years ago. But it's easy to see this Powerball winner hasn't let the money change her.

On Friday night, a Mega Millions jackpot of more than $500 million is in the offing. Somebody may win big. Now, the only guaranteed winners of lotteries are state treasuries. But we're betting you're more interested in your own odds of winning a lottery, and where the payouts are best.

A trio of wealth managers from Greenwich, one of the most affluent towns in America, claimed a Powerball jackpot worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars Monday off a $1 ticket.

When Robert Thibodaux Sr. went to buy his weekly lottery tickets at the end of October, he planned to spend $5, but the clerk accidentally added the powerplay option, costing him $2 more. The result: a $1 million payday.

The Consumerist recently had an interesting post about a study that shows that poor households, with annual take-home incomes under $13,000, on average, spend $645 a year on lottery tickets, which comes to about 9% of their yearly income. While the study is about two years old, I doubt things have...

Do you think that your state runs its lottery? If so, guess again: Most of America's lotteries are run by either Mega Millions or the Multi-State Lottery Association (known as MUSL), two massive non-profits that control games in 44 states and territories. Now these two behemoths are talking about...