Samir Akhter, the owner of Penn Branch Liquor, sells Powerball tickets on Saturday in Washington. With Powerball sales breaking previous records, the odds are growing t…
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It’s not like players ever had a great shot at winning a jackpot, but by lengthening the odds, he said, “you take odds that were really, really small before, and now they’re almost twice as small as they were before”. One hopeful thought: Scott A. Norris, an assistant professor of mathematics at Southern Methodist University, says your tiny odds improve a bit if you let the computer pick your numbers rather than choosing yourself.
Since Nov. 4, the Powerball jackpot has grown from its $40 million starting point as no one has won the jackpot. Earlier in the day, the Multi-State Lottery Association had said the jackpot was $900 million.
To win the jackpot, a ticket must have all six numbers correct.
The chance of no one hitting all five initial numbers and the Powerball number is growing slimmer, Grief acknowledged. Texas state lottery spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said it was too early to know if any winning tickets were sold.
Each ticket costs $2, but the odds to win the jackpot is 1 in 292,201,338.
Powerball ticket sales were so brisk that many retailers were running out of paper to print the tickets on.
Powerball is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The Powerball jackpot has climbed yet another $100 million to a whopping grand total of $900 million. “You can throw out the statistics”, said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery.
That’s only $50 million away from $1 billion.
The bigger prizes draw more players, who in turn make the jackpots even bigger.
We anticipate knowing if there’s a Powerball victor by tonight.
The lucky numbers will be drawn just before 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. Winners would have the option to receive 30 either 30 payments or accept the $558 million cash value. The biggest winning jackpot was in 2012 with a MegaMillions game that was worth $656 million.
Officials say that if no one wins on Saturday, the next jackpot will be $1.3 billion.
But if no one matches all the numbers Saturday, the next drawing is expected to soar past $1 billion.
By the time the numbers were picked, the final lottery sum rose to $949.8 million, according to The Associated Press.
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That percentage could rise if the jackpot estimate is increased before the drawing.
