Powerball Odds and Buying Lots of Tickets Often Doesn't Pay.

Reply #16

wander73 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 14:30:54 GMT

I came across this topic and you're all exactly right. Second why do people freak out when they see that big amt knowing that the lottery is going to take out their share, the state, the persons tax and pretty much how much is left.

Out of these past lotteries I have played

1st one $5 with powerplay = $15

Last night I played $7 with powerplay = $21.

I can't believe people are honestly going to waste their money and put extra out and powerball people are up to something.... [ More ]

Reply #15

diggindeeep — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:39:31 GMT

One thing for certain, you can't win if you don't play.

Reply #14

Todd — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:38:11 GMT

Reply #13

lcoleman — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:35:58 GMT

So what's the point of these stats...

odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime is 1 in 3000 [National Geographic]. If your going to get struck by lightning might as well do it in style with $400 Mill

Reply #12

Murgatroyd — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:25:00 GMT

Nope. Let's look at the actual numbers.

Probability of being struck by lightning in a given year: about 1 in a million.

Probability of being struck by lightning on a given day: about 1 in 365 million.

Probability of being struck by lightning in a two-day period: about 1 in 182 million.

Probability of winning PB: 1 in 292 million.

Probability of winning MM:1 in 259 million.

Given that most people buy their tickets in the day or two before the drawing, their odds of winning are v... [ More ]

Reply #11

Stack47 — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 23:46:00 GMT

With overall odds of 1:24.8671 and at $2 a ticket, players need to spend $50 just to expect to win something. If they want to spend that much, they could add another $10 and use each of the 75 numbers twice and each bonus number once.

Unless a player buys multiple tickets with the same five numbers and the same bonus number, only one ticket can win the jackpot regardless if a player buys 500 tickets or 2.

Good Luck

Reply #10

music* — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 22:21:51 GMT

This Power Ball is an equal opportunity chance of winning or losing. The odds do not improve that much with thousands of dollars bet by one person.

I will not enjoy hearing, This is the first time I played . But it is possible.

Reply #9

LiveInGreenBay — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 21:26:11 GMT

Is it possible to have 10,000 winning tickets? Yes it is, not likely though. Think of it, each winner would receive 80 thousand. LOL

Reply #8

psykomo — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:54:52 GMT

This powerball jackpot caught me by surprise cause don't pay alotta attention to POWERBALL anymore. WHY

we all of a sudden get a BILLION $$$ JACKPOT now and got all those crapy pots right after they DID

change the MATRIX and payout tier, IT just don't COMPUTE to ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, they looked like Mega Million jackpots for a long spell BUT, there POWERBALL pots were getting hit about the same as MEGA MILLION wons over and over again and again wi... [ More ]

Reply #7

Romancandle — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:50:33 GMT

Well then... here's to swimmin with bowlegged women (in a thunderstorm)

Cheers to whomever hits it tonight

Reply #6

RL-RANDOMLOGIC — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:09:43 GMT

I purchased 2 self pick lines, I don't have any better odds of winning then anyone else but part of the fun

is picking my own numbers. Playing more tickets does offer better odds but better in this case, does not

amount to much. You could spend $200,000,000.00 for 100,000,000 tickets and still have around a 1 in 3

chance of winning. Entertainment only, it's kind of exciting to think you might be the one and I hope my line

beats the wife's.

RL

Reply #5

Redd55 — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 19:48:31 GMT

I bought 8 tickets. Too many?

I try to find out how many tickets winners buy. Though strictly anecdotal, they appear to buy 5 - 10 lines. So, yeah, if your number comes up, your number comes up.

Reply #4

BuyLow — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 19:15:45 GMT

Sorry. Todd's quote is closer to the truth about odds. Northrop compared the likelihood of winning the Mega Millions jackpot to being struck by lightning at the same time as being eaten by a shark.

Story here: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/282678

Reply #3

Luminus — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 08:17:34 GMT

You're right. It won't. Even with 640,000 tries, I still failed to get 5/5. (Each game was $800. So 800x800 = 640,000. No real money was spent.) Just buy 1 ticket, if you're going to play with all of the balls.

Reply #2

Murgatroyd — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 02:01:06 GMT

My favorite statistic for lottery probability is this:

You're about as likely to win PB or MM as you are to be struck by lightning before the drawing.

Reply #1

ThatScaryChick — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 01:49:40 GMT

I know part of me sees people spending $500, $1,000 or more and I kind of wish I had the money to do that but then I realize in the end even that amount of won't make a dent in the odds so I feel ok with only buying a few tickets.

Powerball Odds and Buying Lots of Tickets Often Doesn't Pay.

Ron5995 — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 01:20:21 GMT

The odds for PA Pick-2 is 1 in 100, and it's a struggle to win $50 on that. Powerball at 1 in ~292 million is ~2.9 million times more difficult.

To put it another way, the entire population of California (~39 million) could each buy a ticket, and yet still only a 1 in 7 chance of hitting the jackpot.

While such a large purchase would likely yield some 2nd and 3rd tier winners, a smaller sub-set may not. I regularly check PA Lottery detailed results for Powerball, and there are drawings in... [ More ]