"It's kind of as if the infamous Powerball delay put a damper on what should have been a huge frenzy "
The decline in interest isn't consistent, but it's been going on for years. Here are the results for all 6 runs that have reached the billion dollar mark, starting at the point they were closest to $500 (the zeros are just place holders to keep the table neat).
current |
11/7/22 |
7/29/22 |
1/22/21 |
10/23/18 |
1/13/16 |
$0 |
$2,040 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$1,600 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$1,200 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$1,100 |
$1,000 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$940 |
$825 |
$1,337 |
$1,050 |
$1,537 |
$0 |
$785 |
$700 |
$830 |
$865 |
$1,000 |
$0 |
$685 |
$625 |
$660 |
$750 |
$667 |
$1,586 |
$565 |
$580 |
$555 |
$625 |
$548 |
$948 |
$510 |
$508 |
$480 |
$520 |
$470 |
$529 |
"If the frenzy isn't as big, less chance of the winner having to share. "
We're not even remotely close to the point at which sharing is likely. Based on the sales forecast that (still) says the jackpot will be $1.1 billion the chance of a single winner is 25.5% and the chance of 2 winners is 5.2%. Sales would have to reach about 375 million tickets before multiple winners is just as likely as a single winner. That's a bit more than 3 times the sales forecast for this drawing, and would have increased the jackpot by about $480 million instead of $160, and just 2 month ago adverting a jackpot of 2 billion wasn't enough to sell that many tickets.
"another $200,000,000 Cash value needs to be tacked on before this is a legitimate Billion dollar pot. "
There has never been a legitimate $1 billion jackpot. Thanks to higher interest rates even the (legitimate) record of a $2.04 billion annuity came up a bit more than $2 million shy of paying out $1 billion. This one is less than 2/3 of the way to actually offering $1 billion.
"I find that logic faulty. "
The logic is okay, but the stupidity and failure to understand the reality it's based on are excellent.