Two winning Powerball tickets beat the odds of being more likely to be hit by lightning
Two winning tickets, from Texas and Missouri, were drawn in the $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot on Saturday night, an impressive result considering there's a better chance of being eaten by a shark or struck by lightning than winning the Powerball, which has odds of winning at 1 in 292.2 million.
With final ticket sales, the jackpot was $1.787 billion, the second-largest U.S. lottery ever won, according to powerball.com. White ball numbers were 11, 23, 44, 61, 62, and red Powerball was 17. The Power Play® multiplier was 2. The winners, who will split the jackpot, have not yet been identified.
Normally you’d have to buy 292,201,338 Powerball tickets with all variations to win just once.
And with tickets costing $2, you’d be shelling out $584.4 million to hit the payoff. And then you’d have to pay taxes on your winnings.
Here’s a list of what you’re more likely to encounter than winning a Powerball jackpot.
Odds are not in your favor
The Powerball jackpot is incredibly difficult to win; hitting the jackpot is less likely than these unexpected events.
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Why are the odds against winning Powerball so high?
Why are the odds stacked against you? You have to guess a wide combination of numbers, printed on six rubber balls about 2 inches in diameter. Those balls cost about $60 apiece, according to lotterylab.com.
Five of the balls are white, bearing the main numbers, and the sixth, known as the bonus ball, is red. To win the jackpot, you have to match all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball.
When you play Powerball, you choose five numbers between 1 and 69 for each of the white balls. Then you choose one number between 1 and 26 for the single red Powerball. You can either choose the numbers yourself or let the lottery terminal pick them randomly for you.
That leaves you with 292,201,338 numerical choices in a single Powerball game.
Even if you don't win the jackpot, check that ticket with care. Prize money is awarded for matching the red Powerball or part of the white ball winning numbers.
Powerball drawings are held three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. Numbers are drawn at the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee.
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; powerball.com; lotterylab.com; Reuters