Two billion at stake: why US lottery jackpots are so huge

Lottery fever is sweeping the United States as people buy up tickets in droves in hopes of securing themselves for life. The record jackpot in US history has already reached $1,6 billion in the Mega Millions lottery, and together with the Powerball jackpot, the total today is $2,22 billion!

Фото: Depositphotos

Last week, lines of dozens of potential winners lined up in minimarkets and stores, whose chance of winning constitutes an extremely small fraction of probability. They all wanted to try their luck by guessing a winning six-digit combination to win, which is growing rapidly after each draw without a winner, writes USA Today.

Mega Millions currently holds the biggest jackpot in US history, overtaking Powerball with its $ 1,586 billion 13 January 2016 of the year. Today's total Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots made 2,22 billion US dollars.

And sales figures are hard to overstate. One of the local Nebraska newspapers reports that on Friday tickets were being sold at a speed of about 400 units per minute. In California, the lottery on Thursday sold 5,7 million tickets in the morning. Mega Millions lottery tickets can be purchased in 44 states, as well as Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.

There were also no winners in Saturday's $476,7 million Powerball drawing, which will be $620 million on Wednesday.

Why are the jackpots so big?

So they are arranged.

In 2015, lottery owners began to play with implied odds, reducing the likelihood of winning the jackpot, which ultimately led to the growth of prize pools to incredible sizes. As the amounts grow to amazing numbers, more and more skeptics and those who have never played the lottery have serious doubts - should we try it too?

Powerball was the first to try out a new formula, when three years ago the lottery changed the potential number of winning combinations. This change reduced the odds of winning from one to 175 millions to one to 292 millions.

Mega Millions, which has existed since 1996, followed suit with a similar line of behavior in October 2017, which reduced the odds from one to 259 millions to one to 302 millions. The company also doubled the cost of a lottery ticket from 1 to 2 dollars and, since the changes, made three of its six largest payments.

As the bank grows, people more often buy more tickets. The draw occurs once a week, until one or several people guess the winning combination.

Фото: Depositphotos

"I'm surprised no one won the last round," said Chris O'Byrne, an information management professor at the University of San Diego. “More than 800 million tickets were purchased. It's shocking that not a single person had an exact match."

According to the professor, the next rally will almost certainly reveal one or several winners.

How can you increase your chances of winning?

You can buy a ticket with each of the possible six-digit combinations. Of course, if you can afford it.

"If you want to guarantee victory, it will cost you $600 million," O'Byrne said. “Even if you win, you will have to share the winnings with someone else who also guessed the correct numbers. Well, good luck."

Does this mean that you should not play?

“It depends on what you’re playing for,” O’Byrne said. “You are more likely to flip a coin and have it land heads up 28 times in a row than you are to win the jackpot.”

But if you get something out of it—whether it's just a fantasy—that might be reason enough to wait in those long lines.

“I invest $2 in the ability to dream until Tuesday about how I will spend the money. That’s a low price to pay for it,” O’Byrne said. “Additionally, the potential return on your $2 is now better than when the lottery started with $40 million.”

Read also on ForumDaily:

Numbers from a dream brought an American a million dollars in the lottery

How to make money without working

How an American pensioner cheated a lottery and became a millionaire

New Jersey Hits Fourth Biggest Jackpot in History

A pair from Indiana came to win a thousand dollars and got a million

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