Disappointed you didn’t win the Powerball jackpot this weekend?
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With no one winning the $800 million jackpot Saturday night, Wednesday night’s victor could walk away with $1.5 billion.
One person who bought a ticket in Austin won $1 million for matching five of the six numbers. Powerball officials made a change last fall to increase the odds of players winning some prize.
$7,700/one second: The pace at which tickets were being sold on Saturday afternoon before the $949.8 million drawing.
The odds of winning are 1 in 292 million. The jackpot has ballooned since its November 4 starting point of $40 million.
The Powerball jackpot just keeps breaking records. The volume of tickets being purchased has reached levels so high that the jackpot is now a record $1.4 billion.
Remaining anonymous following a huge lottery windfall is obviously something that would protect the victor from what many previous mega-jackpot winners have referred to as a “relentless” onslaught of pitches, scams, family members and others interested in separating you from your newly-minted fortune.
The Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, reports that some of the biggest ticket sales come from border cities.
The Powerball drawing will take place on Wednesday night.
Some people feel 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.
“It’s been busy and they’re still buying lottery tickets”. In fiscal year 2014, the lottery brought in more than $2.9 billion in ticket sales thanks to growth in other games. Between Jan. 6 and Saturday’s drawings, more than $900 million in Powerball tickets were sold.
Unfortunately, there are lots of stories about lottery winners who blow through their winnings only to end up paupers just a few years later.
Meanwhile, in Washington, there’s no state tax on lottery prizes.
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Peter Finn, psychology professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, said people overestimate their chances of winning, and are driven by emotion instead of logic, which helps explain the frenzy.
