Imagine for a moment that someone sits you down, stares you straight in the eyes and asks you the following question: “I can give you any amount of money you desire. How much would you like?” For most of us, the first instinct might be to state a figure reaching into the hundreds of millions, maybe even billions, of dollars. Here at Lottoland, this is the exact question we posed to over 1000 people for a lotto analysis of regular people. But it’s not as simple to answer as you might think: Choosing a figure that reaches into the billions would be a dramatic change in lifestyle. There would be a number of things to take into consideration, such as how you’ll receive and protect your cash, whether or not you’ll be dishing it out to friends and family, if you’ll be hiring any financial advisors, and whether it’s a good idea to quit your job straight off the bat.
So, keeping all this in mind, we asked respondents to think carefully about their response. The ideal jackpot should be large enough to secure you for life, but small enough to not immediately boggle the mind. What we received were a series of ideal jackpots for different sexes, age groups, occupations, working statuses and even various types of relationship. And above all, we found out what the “Golden Number” is.
Age-wise, we noticed a correlation whereby the older people get, the less money they appear to desire. Young adults wanted an average of $33 million, middle-aged folk a jackpot of $26 million, and the elderly a comfy $8 million. It’s often said that older generations tend to win the lottery more often – it’s interesting, then, how they’d actually prefer a smaller jackpot than everyone else! Currently, the largest every lottery jackpot was won by Mavis Wanczyk of Massachusetts, which totalled a staggering $758.7 million. After being asked how she’d celebrate, she responded with “I’m going to hide in my bed!”.
Some other interesting takes from the lotto analysis include the fact that students (18 years and under) desire a hefty jackpot of $58 million, while those in a part-time or full-time position would settle for more than half that amount. In terms of occupation, farmers surprised us with a preferred jackpot of $43 million, while those in an executive or freelance position desired a considerably smaller $10 million. Could this indicate job satisfaction, or is there more at play here?
Our lotto analysis also examined the jackpot preferences between males and females, and it returned some very fascinating results. According to the lotto analysis, it seems that females would prefer over $10 million more than males! For the full details, and to find out what the “Golden Number” or “the perfect jackpot to win” really is (that’s right, we purposely didn’t reveal it), check out the visual below.
