The Long-Run Simulator
Mega Millions Simulator
Tell it what you spend a week and it plays every drawing for you at the official published odds, then prints the receipt: tickets bought, prizes hit, cents back per dollar, and how close you ever came to the jackpot. Years pass in a second here. They cost a lot less that way.
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I spend about this much a week
For how long?
$25/week buys 5 plays a week at $5 each. Every ticket uses the official published odds. Jackpot pays the current advertised cash option. Non-jackpot prizes use the guaranteed 2x multiplier minimum.
FAQ
Common questions.
How does the Mega Millions simulator work?
Every simulated ticket runs against the official published odds for each prize tier (5 numbers from 70 plus a Mega Ball from 24). The simulator counts how many tickets you would buy at your pace, draws each tier's wins at its true probability, and totals what you spent against what came back. The jackpot uses the current cash value, so results reflect what a winner would actually collect as a lump sum.
Is this rigged to make the lottery look bad?
No. It uses the same odds printed on the lottery's own site, nothing else. Mega Millions pays back a fixed share of ticket sales as prizes, so over long stretches the math lands close to the published payout no matter who runs the numbers. Some runs get lucky. Run it a few times and watch the spread.
What does "play until the jackpot" mode do?
It keeps buying tickets at your pace until the jackpot actually hits, then shows how long that took and what it cost along the way. Most runs take thousands of years of play. Occasionally a run hits early, which is exactly how a real jackpot winner happens: someone has to be the lucky one, and this shows how many others were not.
Why does it compare against a savings account?
Because that is the real alternative for the same dollars. The comparison compounds your ticket spending at a flat 4% annual yield over the same period. It is a simple benchmark, not financial advice, and it ignores taxes and rate changes. The gap is usually large enough that the fine print does not matter.
Does simulating help me win?
No. Every drawing is independent and no simulator, strategy, or number pattern changes the odds of the next one. What a simulation shows honestly is the shape of the long run: what playing actually costs, how often the mid-tier prizes land, and how rare the top of the ladder really is.