Is it possible to bypass the "system" and win the 1,5 billion dollar jackpot

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As of Tuesday, January 12, the amount won increased to 1,5 billion dollars.

Under the terms of the Powerball lottery, the gain on Wednesday, January 13, goes to someone who correctly guesses the numbers of five white balls and one red, which is called the Powerball.

The first five numbers can be called in random order.

Theoretically, you need to buy 292 a million tickets (just such a number of combinations), each of which costs 2 dollars. It would seem that for everything you need to pay 584 a million dollars and get away with the biggest jackpot.

It is estimated that one-time payment of the jackpot will be 868 million dollars. This in itself will give you a chance to make a net profit of 284 million dollars, if you bought all the tickets. In addition to the main jackpot, you, as the owner of all tickets, can additionally win all the small prize combinations on 92 million dollars, which the system will double to 200 million dollars.

So, theoretically, from 1,2 a billion dollars your net profit would be 576 million dollars.

However, do not rejoice too soon There are at least two reasons why theory is different from reality:

1. You will have to share the winnings.

During the previous game 440 sold millions of tickets. It is likely that more will be sold this time, let's assume that by Wednesday the same number of tickets will be sold.

When you buy each combination, you guarantee yourself a victory only on 22%, says Victor Matheson, a professor of economics and accounting at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. With the same combination, the chances of winning are distributed as follows:

• one person - 33%
• two - 25%
• three - 12%
• four - 6%

Last time, December 10, with 440 million tickets sold on 77% there was a chancethat at least one person would win a Powerball, Matheson said.

2. You will not have time to buy most lottery tickets.

You must purchase each ticket in person. If you were able to buy every second ticket, it would take more than nine years.

Suppose you have helpers who buy tickets at the same time. They would have to work without a break for three days.

“Think about how many lottery ticket stations there are around the country and how busy they are, working non-stop for the last three days,” Matheson said. “Until now they have only been able to sell 440 million tickets.”

The largest jackpot in US history was registered in 2012 and won the Mega Millions lottery. The jackpot was 656 million dollars, though then it was divided among several winning tickets.