Larry Lesser PhD is a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas - El Paso and is one of the nation's leading experts (and most fun guests) on the subject of lottery math. Larry has been on the air with me a couple of times before but it's been a few years so I'm psyched to have him back to answer your questions as we head into one of the biggest lottery drawings in American history with Friday's Mega Millions pot of slightly over $1 BILLION (though if you take all the money at once, you'd get something like $600 million before tax.) At the end of this blog note, check out Larry's great song, "The Gambler", about lottery math.
Also see more below about lottery odds and payouts...on the question of "what if I bought every number combination"?
http://www.math.utep.edu/faculty/lesser/index.html
https://larrylesser.com/