The $900 million Powerball payout is now among the top three largest prizes of all time, but your odds of winning this huge chunk of cash are achingly slim.
The Powerball lottery just got a little more exciting. After no winner claimed the prize on Saturday, the Powerball’s jackpot has now risen to $900 million. The upcoming winner—assuming someone will win it this time around—can either cash out the $900 million in 30 yearly installments, or as a lump sum of $465.1 million before taxes. The original jackpot was estimated at around $875 million, and the $900 million payout is now among the top three largest prizes of all time, Powerball says.
According to Powerball, the odds of winning the grand prize in any drawing is 1 in 292.2 million. Those are lofty chances at taking home a major sum of cash—so lofty in fact, that there’s plenty of other things that would happen to you first. Like:
The easiest way to increase your odds of winning the Powerball’s $900 million jackpot is to prime the pump, or, in other words, buy more tickets. If the odds of you winning the Powerball are 1 in 292.2 million, then buying a second ticket would increase those odds to 2 in 292.2 million. Buying a third ticket would then increase those odds to 3 in 292.2 million, and so on. Look, we didn’t say it was a good hack.
You could also move to a different state. 45 states participate in the Powerball lottery, and some states are home to more wins than others. Jackpocket, a lottery app in which users can buy tickets on their phone, says that the top three states for Powerball winners are Indiana with 39 wins, Missouri with 31 wins, and Minnesota with 22 wins.
Even still, Powerball says that the probability of winning any of their prizes is 1 in 24.87 with the lowest payout being $4. Lottery tickets are around $2, so you have a pretty good chance at profiting.
Source: Gizmodo