Powerball jackpot grows to record half-billion dollars
CHICAGO (AP) - Eight months after a trio of ticket buyers split a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot to set a world lottery record, Powerball is offering up a prize that would be the second highest.
The $500 million jackpot, the largest in Powerball's history, represents a potential life-changing fortune. The jackpot grew from the previously-announced $425 million due to soaring ticket sales. But before shelling out $2 for a ticket, here are some things to consider:
A good bet: someone will win
It's the gambler's mantra: Somebody's gotta win, so why not me?
The first part is true; somebody will win the Powerball jackpot.
Chuck Strutt, executive director of Multi-State Lottery Association, predicts there's about a 60 percent chance it'll happen Wednesday - maybe better if there's a flurry of last-minute ticket purchasers picking unique numbers.
The jackpot already has defied long odds by rolling over 16 consecutive times without anyone hitting the big prize, which now stands at $500 million. Strutt puts the odds at around 5 percent there would be no winner in the entire run, including Wednesday.
As the drought increases, so too will the chances of it ending on the next draw, because ticket sales spike with a growing jackpot.
Someone will win. Eventually.
A bad bet: it'll be you
It's true to say that you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the Powerball. But that woefully understates the danger of lightning.
Tim Norfolk, a University of Akron mathematics professor who teaches a course on gambling, puts the odds of a lightning strike in a person's lifetime at 1 in 5,000. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot: 1 in 175 million.
While weather is the go-to analogy for such astronomical odds, Norfolk suggests there are better ones.
For example, you'd have a slightly better chance of randomly picking the name of one specific female in the United States: 1 in 157 million, according to the latest census.
Victory loves company
Should you win the jackpot, there's a good chance you'll have to share - and not just with family, friends and Uncle Sam.
The odds of someone winning increase as the ticket sales do. So, too, do the odds of duplicate tickets, especially for people who choose their own numbers rather than letting the computers pick.
Prefer the lucky numbers of 7 or 11? You're not alone. How about a loved one's birthday? It's 31 or lower - digits more frequently duplicated than 32 and up. (There are 59 white balls and 35 red balls in the draw).
Norfolk predicts that if there is a winner, there will be multiple ones because mathematical theory shows that numbers have a way of clustering, even at much smaller sample sizes.
If you take 23 random people, there's about a 50-50 chance that at least two will have the same birthday, Norfolk said. Throw choice into the equation - about 20 percent of players typically select their own numbers - and the clusters could be even more defined.
That played out in March, when three tickets from Kansas, Maryland and Illinois split the world-record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot.
A single ticket holds Powerball's current record of $365 million in 2006, shared by several ConAgra Foods Workers in Lincoln, Neb.
Feeling lucky in a bad economy
Gambling experts say a majority of Americans will play some lottery game at least once in a given year.
Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass-Dartmouth, says addicted gamblers are less likely to turn to massive jackpot ticket games like Powerball than scratch-off games.
"Scratch-off players are looking for instant gratification and an instant win," Barrow said. "A lot of those people don't like playing lotto because you have to wait. You have to sit on it for a few days."
While it may seem counterintuitive, Barrow says gambling activity often increases as the economy gets worse and people have less disposable income. However, his research - which focused mainly on New England - found the trend reversed in the latest downturn.
"The Great Recession has been so deep and so long, it's suppressed any kind of discretionary spending across the board," said Barrow, who added about the same percentage of people are playing the lottery - they're just buying fewer tickets.
Strutt, Powerball's executive director, said sales largely stayed flat during the peak of the recession in 2008 and 2009, but picked up since.
"Our biggest factor is gas prices," he said. "If people go to a gas station and put 80 bucks of gas in their car, they're not feeling happy to buy a lottery ticket."
Rig-proof lottery?
It's conceivable you could win Wednesday night's drawing, just not the right one.
In addition to the official one televised nationally from Tallahassee, Fla., there are four practice runs.
The reason, Strutt says, is to make sure the machines are running properly and the numbers are being distributed properly. The balls used in the game are regularly measured, weighed and X-rayed. Then they're locked up in a room that's under 24/7 surveillance. Only the organizers and their auditors have a key.
Is it a good investment?
You already know the answer to that. Yet people play anyway.
Strutt is estimating that there will be $214 million in sales for Wednesday's drawing (up from $140 million from Saturday's drawing).
Half the proceeds go to the prize pool - about a third of that to the big jackpot, with the rest to lower ones, including a new $1 million second prize. The other half goes to the lottery operations in the 42 states plus Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands where Powerball is played. This funds charitable efforts such as education, in addition to paying for overhead and compensating winning stores.
Barrow says it's no secret that it's not a prudent investment to regularly buy lottery tickets, but contends it's a little more defensible as the amount skyrockets.
If the jackpot amount approached $600 million, and if you had the means to buy enough tickets until you won, AND if you could guarantee you wouldn't have to share with anyone, then it might be a wise investment.
That's a lot of ifs, Barrow says. But he'll likely join the throngs of ticket buyers.
"For 2 bucks, it's worth a chance," he said. "What else am I going to do with that $2? I'll just waste it on something else."
The $500 million jackpot, the largest in Powerball's history, represents a potential life-changing fortune. The jackpot grew from the previously-announced $425 million due to soaring ticket sales. But before shelling out $2 for a ticket, here are some things to consider:
A good bet: someone will win
It's the gambler's mantra: Somebody's gotta win, so why not me?
The first part is true; somebody will win the Powerball jackpot.
Chuck Strutt, executive director of Multi-State Lottery Association, predicts there's about a 60 percent chance it'll happen Wednesday - maybe better if there's a flurry of last-minute ticket purchasers picking unique numbers.
The jackpot already has defied long odds by rolling over 16 consecutive times without anyone hitting the big prize, which now stands at $500 million. Strutt puts the odds at around 5 percent there would be no winner in the entire run, including Wednesday.
As the drought increases, so too will the chances of it ending on the next draw, because ticket sales spike with a growing jackpot.
Someone will win. Eventually.
A bad bet: it'll be you
It's true to say that you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the Powerball. But that woefully understates the danger of lightning.
Tim Norfolk, a University of Akron mathematics professor who teaches a course on gambling, puts the odds of a lightning strike in a person's lifetime at 1 in 5,000. The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot: 1 in 175 million.
While weather is the go-to analogy for such astronomical odds, Norfolk suggests there are better ones.
For example, you'd have a slightly better chance of randomly picking the name of one specific female in the United States: 1 in 157 million, according to the latest census.
Victory loves company
Should you win the jackpot, there's a good chance you'll have to share - and not just with family, friends and Uncle Sam.
The odds of someone winning increase as the ticket sales do. So, too, do the odds of duplicate tickets, especially for people who choose their own numbers rather than letting the computers pick.
Prefer the lucky numbers of 7 or 11? You're not alone. How about a loved one's birthday? It's 31 or lower - digits more frequently duplicated than 32 and up. (There are 59 white balls and 35 red balls in the draw).
Norfolk predicts that if there is a winner, there will be multiple ones because mathematical theory shows that numbers have a way of clustering, even at much smaller sample sizes.
If you take 23 random people, there's about a 50-50 chance that at least two will have the same birthday, Norfolk said. Throw choice into the equation - about 20 percent of players typically select their own numbers - and the clusters could be even more defined.
That played out in March, when three tickets from Kansas, Maryland and Illinois split the world-record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot.
A single ticket holds Powerball's current record of $365 million in 2006, shared by several ConAgra Foods Workers in Lincoln, Neb.
Feeling lucky in a bad economy
Gambling experts say a majority of Americans will play some lottery game at least once in a given year.
Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass-Dartmouth, says addicted gamblers are less likely to turn to massive jackpot ticket games like Powerball than scratch-off games.
"Scratch-off players are looking for instant gratification and an instant win," Barrow said. "A lot of those people don't like playing lotto because you have to wait. You have to sit on it for a few days."
While it may seem counterintuitive, Barrow says gambling activity often increases as the economy gets worse and people have less disposable income. However, his research - which focused mainly on New England - found the trend reversed in the latest downturn.
"The Great Recession has been so deep and so long, it's suppressed any kind of discretionary spending across the board," said Barrow, who added about the same percentage of people are playing the lottery - they're just buying fewer tickets.
Strutt, Powerball's executive director, said sales largely stayed flat during the peak of the recession in 2008 and 2009, but picked up since.
"Our biggest factor is gas prices," he said. "If people go to a gas station and put 80 bucks of gas in their car, they're not feeling happy to buy a lottery ticket."
Rig-proof lottery?
It's conceivable you could win Wednesday night's drawing, just not the right one.
In addition to the official one televised nationally from Tallahassee, Fla., there are four practice runs.
The reason, Strutt says, is to make sure the machines are running properly and the numbers are being distributed properly. The balls used in the game are regularly measured, weighed and X-rayed. Then they're locked up in a room that's under 24/7 surveillance. Only the organizers and their auditors have a key.
Is it a good investment?
You already know the answer to that. Yet people play anyway.
Strutt is estimating that there will be $214 million in sales for Wednesday's drawing (up from $140 million from Saturday's drawing).
Half the proceeds go to the prize pool - about a third of that to the big jackpot, with the rest to lower ones, including a new $1 million second prize. The other half goes to the lottery operations in the 42 states plus Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands where Powerball is played. This funds charitable efforts such as education, in addition to paying for overhead and compensating winning stores.
Barrow says it's no secret that it's not a prudent investment to regularly buy lottery tickets, but contends it's a little more defensible as the amount skyrockets.
If the jackpot amount approached $600 million, and if you had the means to buy enough tickets until you won, AND if you could guarantee you wouldn't have to share with anyone, then it might be a wise investment.
That's a lot of ifs, Barrow says. But he'll likely join the throngs of ticket buyers.
"For 2 bucks, it's worth a chance," he said. "What else am I going to do with that $2? I'll just waste it on something else."
Already been stuck by lightning, once, but I still buy my 1 line ticket; it only takes 1 to win. I feel sorry for those that will or have spent hundreds, please take note, your odds really haven't changed much; 1 in 175m or 100 in 175m, there isn't much difference. Think of it this way, take a 5 gallon bucket of sand, one of those grains of sand is the winning numbers. Say you buy 100 lines of numbers ($200 or $300), take out 100 grains of sand from the bucket, how much is left.
 @Crimsonkid Which is why I buy my one ticket.Â
I am happy with what I have and don't need more. I don't play at all and never will.Â
I put the odds at 50/50 - either you'll win or you won't. Same as the odds for everything else. Got a cold? You'll either get better or you won't. Crossing the street? You'll either make it across or you won't. Everthing in life is a 50/50 chance, and I think that's pretty good odds :)
 @GarethB1 you never took statistics did you?
However unlikely it may be to be my ticket, I am going to play. To the doofus who wrote this- since someone will eventually win, who says it won't be me? It has to be one or more tickets sold and you can't win it if you aren't in it and as long as you are in it, you have a chance. One chance in a billion? It only takes one. So go be Debby Downer elsewhere. It's not like I quit my job, I just get to have a dream and there is a small chance it could be me, and if it is, I will swing by KOMO to laugh in your face.
One can dream Komo... you have to play to win... also true... do I think it will be me ok not likely but I'll take a shot none the less... share the jackpot yeah... even if that is the case so what there is plenty to go around a group...and the group can all share history =) that has no price tag....
That's why they call it a dream...
I was highly amused last time the jackpot got up so high; KOMO reported it was more likely to be hit by lightening on your way to buy a ticket than to win - and then followed up the day after the drawing to report that a man actually WAS struck by lightening on his way.Â
The article is grossly inaccurate because it compares the LIFETIME risk of being struck by lighting to the ONE-TIME odds of winning the powerball jackpot based on the purchase of one single ticket. Â If you were to compare apples to apples, you could achieve the same lifetime odds of winning the powerball, given the following requirements:
Â
You live from age 18 to 74, and play the Powerball continuously throughout this time period, playing the Powerball twice a week for 56 years. Â Each time you play, you purchase six combinations for a total of $12 per play, or $24 per week. Â This will give you a lifetime odds of winning the jackpot of 5000:1
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@ondskap Your chances don't change as you keep playing, each drawing is a single event and has no effect on the next; so mathmatically speaking the odds don't change.
 @ondskap So you're telling me there's a chance?
 @Cooter_Brown That's right Lloyd
Sometimes when I have little to look forward to I buy tickets. That tiny chance that I could win is often enough hope to keep me going. A couple dollars worth of dreams......
Was there a winner? I have five tickets that i have yet to check for winning. Wish me luck!
I bought a ticket. If I win, after taxes, that will be one hell of a weekend ride in Vegas. No regrets though.
Hello Parade. I am the Jeff McMurray rain cloud. Have a crappy day.
 @SODOSonicsNow Thanks for giving me my first good chuckle of the day.
 @SODOSonicsNow I know huh?
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