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Sky’s the limit: Powerball jackpot grows to $1 billion

3 min read
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The latest Powerball jackpot has ballooned above $1 billion, after Monday’s drawing produced no winners.

That’s a cash payout of an estimated $516.8 million for Wednesday night’s drawing (should the winner choose the annuity option, the $1 billion would be paid out over 29 years).

Those who study statistics and probability will tell you how unlikely it usually is to win the lottery.

And the odds of winning Wednesday’s jackpot aren’t so great: one in 292.2 million.

But according to mathematician Dr. John Zimmerman, a professor in the mathematics department of Washington & Jefferson College, with the jackpot exceeding $1 billion, it’s worth plunking down $2 for a ticket.

After a brief discussion of “combinatorial formulas that can bring precision to gambling strategies,” Zimmerman said, “in this case, it makes sense to play.”

A billion dollars is such a huge number it’s hard to wrap your head around it. So Zimmerman looked at it another way.

If you stacked one billion dollar bills on top of each other, the stack would reach 68 miles high – which is above where outer space begins.

For perspective on the magnitude of the 1 in 292.2 million odds of winning, you should note you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning twice (1 in 9 million) or attacked by a shark (1 in 5 million).

Or, imagine you went to PNC Park and the stadium was filled to capacity (38,000 seats), and everyone inside was entered in a lottery with a single winner. In that case, your odds of winning would be 1 in 38,000.

Would you sit on the edge of your seat in the stadium, expecting to be the winner?

To equal the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot, you would have to fill PNC Park to capacity 7,684 more times and put all of those people together, and have the same drawing with a single winner.

The last time someone won a Powerball jackpot was April 19. Monday marked the 37th consecutive drawing without a grand prize winner.

The current jackpot is the sixth-largest jackpot ever in the U.S. Should someone win the current Powerball jackpot, though, the payday would not approach the biggest Powerball jackpot ever – $2 billion, which was won in November 2022.

Zimmerman also shared some advice for picking numbers: every six-number combination is equally likely to win.

“If you play the numbers 1 through 5, and 6 is your Powerball, that combination has just as good a chance as anything else. Every combination is equally likely, so it doesn’t matter what numbers you play,” said Zimmerman. “People play birthdates and anniversary dates, but those numbers you pick are just for fun. If you have the machine pick the numbers for you, you’re equally likely to win.”

It’s hard not to dream about how you’d spend your winnings, and think about how your life would change in an instant.

Here, too, Zimmerman has a suggestion for spending some of that money.

“There are so many deserving charitable organizations in our area that would benefit from (the winner’s) largesse,” said Zimmerman. “You read a lot about lottery winners who are miserable. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but doing something for your community that would have a positive impact is a good way to use it.”

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