When playing games like PowerBall, you're playing two lotteries, one of 5/55 and another of 1/42.  The odds of winning the jackpot are the odds of winning both.  If you pick the same PB for each of your combinations of five then your odds of matching the PB remains the same, however if you match it you're match it more than once.

chuck32 writes "Before the drawing, every set of numbers has absolutely the same chance of winning." 

Yes you are correct but in one case you can simplify the odds before the drawing and in the other case you cant!!!

In the world of statistics, 2:4 does not equal 1:2.  Chuck hit on the answer - because each combination has the exact chances of being the winning selection.  You can't simplify the odds because the 197 million represents the potential combinations.  No matter how many tickets you buy (or combinations you hold) there is still a chance for 197 million outcomes.  Buying four tickets does not reduce the possible outcomes to 49 million. 

I know it seems logical to simplify the equation, but that is not correct when considering odds.  Each ticket has the same chance of winning, no matter how many you hold - 1 in 197 million. 

Look. If I buy 2 Powerball tickets, MY odds are going to be 1 in 97.5 million. I own both tickets. I'm not making millions of combinations disappear either. There is still 195 million possible outcomes, 2 of which I have. I'm just simplifying a fraction.

If you were to buy all 195 million UNIQUE combinations, you would not say that you have 195 million tickets each with 1 in 195 million odds of winning (which would be true however).  You would say you have 195,000,000 / 195,000,000 (or 1 in 1) chances of winning.

The same holds true if you have 97.5 million UNIQUE tickets.  You have half of the possible combinations, so you have a 1 in 2 chance of winning.

You should assume that when discussing combinations, that the person is talking about unique combinations unless they specifically say they aren't. I don't know why people come into a thread saying "But it has to be UNIQUE!". Yes, we already know that.

Discussions about how to express odds, how to best claim a jackpot once it's won and who should share it will alway be around as long as posters have nothing to add to an intelligent discussion about how to win a jackpot.  Such discussions don't enlighten anyone about winning a lottery which is why most people read these threads.

This is the fifth redesign for the best-known multi-state jackpot game since it was created in 1992. The last change was in August 2005. Changes to the current game are expected to be in place by January 2009.

Does anyone know what the exact date will be of the first drawing with the matrix change? 

I think it still has to go through some approval process.  The release says it has a target date of "January." 

I hope you win it...

Really, I do.