Yet another reason bettors might prefer their local bookie to their local government:

Official odds of matching just the powerball: 1 in 38.32. Payoff: $4
Official odds of matching the powerball plus one number: 1 in 91.97. Payoff: $4

Massachusetts joins the soaking the poor fun, having just come up with a scratch ticket advertised as the "Billion Dollar Extravaganza." Cost for a single ticket? $50. Just to be clear, the decimal point is to the right of the zero. The top prize is $25 Million and there are 21 total prizes of $1 Million or more, so I'm not sure where the "billion" comes from, but I'm sorry, buying a $50 scratch ticket is not just having a little fun w/ your spare change. I have to admit that I don't know how successful the game is, and I hope that people are staying away in droves, but the MA lottery generally has its finger on the gambling pulse so my hopes are not high. Fifty Dollars!!