We're all dreaming what we'd do with $800 million. That's how big the estimated Powerball jackpot is now. It actually jumped another $100 million today. The prize is the largest in lottery history, and it just keeps growing.
Some perspective on just how crazy sales are, the Kansas Lottery said at one point on Wednesday people were buying Powerball tickets at a rate of more then 5,300 a minute.
Why is the Powerball so big?
CNBC reports that no one has won the Powerball jackpot since November, thus the reason it's grown so large. Additionally, more people are enticed to buy tickets as the the jackpot rises. That increase in ticket sales increases the chance of a winner.
Don't buy more tickets
If the jackpot is $800, why not buy one ticket of every number combo?
CNBC is already ahead of you on this one. "If you have extra cash and are thinking of buying all possible number combinations, that is allowed, but it wouldn't be very smart," the website writes.
Here why: at $2 a pop, the strategy would cost you $584 million. In theory, you could walk away with $216 million, a nice chunk of change.
But once you factor in taxes, you'd actually end up losing money.
The odd odds
Forget 1 in a million. With this Powerball, your chances of winning are 1 in 292.2 million. Strategic statistician and author of The Book of Odds, Amram Shapiro, told Time Magazine that players have a higher chance of the following happening than winning this Powerball:
- Dying from an asteroid strike: 1 in 74,817,414
- Becoming a movie star: 1 in 1,505,000
- Getting struck by lightning: 1 in 1,101,000
Keep it on the down low
The Missouri Lottery advises that winners "tell the fewest people possible" as friends, family and your mom's-best-friend's-counsin's-godson's-neighbor's-first-grade-teacher could come out of the woodwork.
Also, people like us here at 41 Action News will be knocking on your door. Instead, put your ticket in a safe place, make your claim, then tell people the good news.
You don't need to buy a bunch of tickets
Today Finance reports that "the odds are so long that even buying a hundred or a thousand tickets is not going to dramatically increase your chances."
So when you buy one ticket or a thousand, your odds are nearly the same.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
You can also follow her on Twitter.
