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Brian Lehrer: All right, we've done local politics. We've done national politics. We've done the New York primary on August 23rd. Now let's talk about the lottery. Someone in Illinois had a very good weekend. A winning ticket was sold in the Chicago area in the Mega Millions game. That ticket hit the top prize in Friday night strong for bewildering $1.34 billion before taxes.

One in a third billion. The estimated cash payout is about $780 million after taxes. It's life-changing money, obviously absurd money, absurd odds too. The odds of winning the jackpot on any one ticket in the Mega Millions is 1 in 302.6 million according to The Washington Post. The post put out a fun quiz about the odds of winning that billion-dollar jackpot and included this bit of trivia.

You were about 3,300 times more likely to be hit by space junk. I think I got that right. Friday night's jackpot is the second largest Mega Millions surprise, not even the biggest, and the third largest jackpot in any American lottery game. Here's our question. Did you buy a ticket and what's your threshold for when you play the lottery? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. If you sometimes do, and sometimes don't play the Mega Millions game or any other big money lottery, how do you decide when to buy a ticket? What's the math? 212-433-WNYC. Do you only buy when the jackpot goes over a certain amount? I heard those stories in the news leading up to Friday night drawing.

"Oh, once it went over a billion, I went out and bought a ticket." Are you like that? If you only won $200 million, would that transform your life any less than if you won one in a third billion? If you play the lottery, where's the line for you? When do you actually buy a lottery ticket? Does it have anything to do with how big the prize is if you win? 212-433-WNYC. Give us that lottery narrative for yourself.

Since the odds of winning any lottery are so small, is it, "Hey, what the heck? It's just a few bucks. You got to be in it to win it. It's one in 302.6 million chance but doesn't cost me that much. I'll play. Maybe it'll change my life?" Or do you actively fantasize what you would do with the money if you won the lottery? Call up and tell us your lottery stories including do you have a threshold, "When it goes over X, then I play the lottery." 212-433-WNYC.

If you happen to be that person in Illinois and you happen to be a Brian Lehrer Show listener, call and tell us what you're going to do with one in a third billion before taxes, 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer. We'll take your calls and tweets after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls on your relationship with the lottery, any lottery 212-433-9692. I'll throw in one other question in addition to those that I hit before the break. The Washington Post reports that a history of past lottery winners shows a wide range of what players do with their winnings. Many have paid off debts, bought homes, invested their money while others have put the cash toward building a water park, gambling in Atlantic City, or starting a women's professional wrestling organization, some adjusted to life as a multimillionaire writes Tim Bella in The Washington Post.

I wonder if there are any lottery winners listening right now who would be willing to share your experience, even if you winnings were modest in comparison to this billion-dollar sum, how did your life change? What did you do with the money? Let's go to Chris in West Orange. Chris, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Chris: Hey, Brian. I wish I was one of the latter folks who could say I was a lottery winner, but I was just calling to answer your previous questions. I don't have a monetary threshold where it's like, "Oh, I'm going to buy if it's over this amount," but just get caught up with all the marketing. I couldn't not see the jackpot with this last one. Whenever it gets this high it's on your Instagram feed, it's on the news. All that fanfare is like, "Why not throw in a few bucks to change your life? Even though it's very unlikely to happen." My father-in-law is a regular lottery player, he plays every week, and hopes to win, but hasn't hit the jackpot yet.

Brian Lehrer: Has he ever won one of those little pro-- I know people who have won like $50 in the New York State lottery and basically they use it to fund their lottery habit.

Chris: That's exactly right. He'll win every other month or so, but pretty much goes back into buying the lottery tickets, or every once in a while he'll treat us out to lunch or dinner.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much Chris. Bill in Port Washington. You're on WNYC. Hi, Bill.

Bill: Hey, Brian. I won the first time $25. That said, "You can win," but I haven't won since except maybe $2 or $4 here, but what I do, automatically when it turns to 250 million, I buy.

Brian Lehrer: Why $250 million? If you won $10 million-- Of course, I don't know your finances, but if you won $10 million, it would probably completely transform your life. Why do you wait until it's 250 million?

Bill: I want it to be big enough that I can do not only good things for my family, but endow something or-- It's got to be big. Actually, the smaller numbers happen all the time. This preserves my money till there's a huge payoff.

Brian Lehrer: Bill. Thank you very much. Lawn in Bayside. You're on WNYC. Hi, Lawn.

Lawn: Hey, Brian. Thank you for taking the call. My wife and I have been doing this since my wife was very ill and she was bedridden for quite a while, a number of years. The one thing that we didn't skimp on was two lottery tickets a week. We would calculate out what we would refer to as the suitcase amount of money, the money that we would walk away with after taxes.

We would just start a plan. We would take vacation in our mind because we couldn't. We now have done that for 30 some odd years and to the point that we now have an exact written down on paper plan about things we'll do in order in a month. We have a $1 million plan, a $10 million plan, a $25 million plan: just what we refer to as just plain stupid money.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to give us a little bit of a sampling? What's on the $1 million plan list? What's on the $10 million that isn't on the 1 million?

Lawn: The $10 million plan, I have my wife's permission to walk to a house in Douglaston, knock on the door and say, "What will it take to get you out of here?" It's a house that I've always dreamed of own it.

Brian Lehrer: Good one. What's the first thing on the million-dollar plan? The minimum thing on all your plan?

Lawn: The million-dollar plan. The first thing we always said was, "How do we give thanks for doing this?" We said any number after the first comma would go directly into charity before anything else.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Lawn, thank you very much. We'll go from Lawn in Bayside to Edward in Bayshore. Edward, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Edward: Hey, Brian, thanks. Nice to talk to you. I've been listening for a while. I was just saying to the [unintelligible 00:08:36] on the phone earlier that I usually never play the lotto I feel like it's a little silly sometimes when the prices are low, but once it hits the threshold of like over a $100 million, I start to think not just of myself, but of all the people in my life: my family and what that money can do for everybody. Then that's when I start to be like, "All right, maybe I'll buy a couple of tickets a week or so just in case."

Brian Lehrer: Got you. Edward, we have terrible line, but I think I got the gist when it gets beyond that certain point, you'll play just in case. Brenda in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Brenda.

Brenda: Good morning. I don't think I've ever had an expectation of actually winning, but I do enjoy when it gets to an obscene amount of money. I enjoy buying a ticket to check in with myself as far as hope, dreams, and wild imagination and just see if I'm on the right track to do whatever it is on a micro version. Since that I'm doing already everything that it is, I hope to dream of but in just a very smaller way. It has to do mostly with philanthropy, but also lifestyle. It's just very handy. It's like a new year's resolution, but for $2.

Brian Lehrer: As long as you don't get hooked. I know of course, when we talk about the lottery, we have to talk about it being in a certain sense a tax on people who sometimes, if they get too hooked on it, can't afford it. I wonder if playing the government lotteries is leading people to any bigger gambling problems. That's always an issue when we talk about the government sponsoring of all things, games of chance, and the proliferation of the games of chance. There's so many different government-sponsored lotteries now, but people have their ways of managing it, hopefully, and some of them probably don't. That's a problem, and it's a problem for public policy.

Why do we do this in the first place? There are all these fantasy relationships that people have with it that we're hearing about, including some of the personal, "I'd buy this house I've always dreamed of owning," and a couple of callers, so far, talking about the philanthropies that they might start. Stefan in Lyndon, you're on WNYC. Hi, Stefan.

Stefan: Hello, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: I'm okay. What's your lottery story?

Stefan: No, it's not a story. I have a question to you because, in the beginning of this segment, you mentioned that you know the chance of being hit by space junk is 3000 times bigger than chance of winning jackpot? That's what you just said?

Brian Lehrer: Something like that.

Stefan: Because I hear about people winning a jackpot pretty much all the time. I never heard about anyone discuss being hit by space junk.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. [chuckles] That's a great point, and I think I got that wrong. I was unsure of it when I said it and now I'm looking back at that quote and-

Stefan: You know, I think you could've mentioned the thunder, but not space junk.

Brian Lehrer: Space junk. Yes. Absolutely. The exact quote, the way I have it here, is you are about 3,300 times less likely to be hit by space junk. Stefan, good catch. Louise in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Louise.

Louise: Oh. Hi, Brian. Yes. I don't even know how to buy a lottery ticket, but my dear friend Boris, a computer programmer buys a two-dollar ticket every day because he says it's cheaper than a shrink.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles]

Louise: It keeps him optimistic. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Yes. All right. He's spending close to $800 a year on lottery tickets.

Louise: Correct. Yes. It's cheaper than a shrink.

Brian Lehrer: Cheaper than a shrink. I wonder how many times he has to lose before it changes from optimism to fatalism, but I guess-

Louise: He never could say it. He's never fatalistic. He's always glass half-full. Maybe that's just his nature. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Who's going to get the last word? How about Peter in Florida. Peter, you're in WNYC. Hi, Peter.

Peter: Hi. I give a lot of my money away to charities that I believe in, and I know the ones that have treated me well and I will give them lots of money if I win the lottery. That's the idea. If I win a lot of money, I know which charities returned my calls, for instance. You know what I mean? Personal relationships. I call them up and they say, "Hi, Peter." Others? They're a little cold. I would reward the ones that were nice to me.

Brian Lehrer: Peter, thank you very much. Changing his relationships with philanthropies that he donates to. The last word in this call-in about your relationship with the lottery. That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Zach Gottehrer-Cohen. Our interns this summer are Emily Ollinger, [unintelligible 00:13:57], and Amanda Rosan, and we had Juliana Fonda, as usual, at the audio controls. I'm Brian Lehrer.

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