At $2 a ticket, that would cost more than $584 million. From Nov. 7, when this Powerball jackpot stood at a measly $40 million, through January 8, the state lottery reported $65 million in Powerball sales.
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The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $US1.5 billion, making it the largest-ever USA lottery prize.
Lottery officials increased their estimate of the huge jackpot for the second day in a row Tuesday because of enormous interest in the prize.
Manitobans are crossing the USA border to try their luck at winning more than a billion dollars, the world’s largest lottery jackpot.
The jackpot is so big that billboards around the country have to advertise the price as $999 million because they’re not built to show billions. The signs were designed with millions – not billions – in mind.
So in Texas, billboards are advertising the prize as $999 million.
“So far today, players have bought more than 1 million tickets”, he said.
Powerball is up to $1.5 billion.
Most recently, there was one $1 million Match 5 victor in Boston.
A Powerball win is getting closer to being a sure thing – for someone. “Rather than it being spent on a can of soup at the grocery store and the grocer returning a few pennies back to the community – that $2 is being spent on lottery tickets and the local convenience store operator will make a few pennies profit that will have some recirculation into the community”, Eisenstadt said.
Meanwhile, expect to hear plenty of bad puns about dough and bread if you head off to get a Powerball ticket at the World CIass Bakers on St. Clair Ave.
The full amount is only paid if the victor chooses to take an annual payout over 29 years, otherwise the lump sum is considerably less.
A 2014 episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” attacked the concept that lotteries serve as charitable foundations, anda follow-up analysis from FiveThirtyEight found that about two-thirds of revenue goes to prizes among 43 states for which the outlet could collect data.
Some people believe that pooling their money with co-workers will improve their chance of winning, but with such tiny odds, adding 50 or 100 chances doesn’t give you a leg up.
So, after spending the $584 million to win, you’d still be losing money.
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The executive director of the Texas Lottery trumpeted the big jackpot over the weekend, but urged those hoping to hit it big not to spend more than they can afford.
