Wednesday’s jackpot is still very far away from catching the record Powerball jackpot of $1.6 billion, but the estimated jackpot of $700 million is the second largest in the game’s history and the second largest in U.S. lottery history.
The cash option for Wednesday’s drawing is $443.3 million.
Your odds are not good
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 25. Meaning if you only play one ticket, you’re probably not even going to win your money back.
But you can’t win if you don’t play and while playing every week might add up, when the jackpot is this large, sacrificing a cup of coffee for a chance to play probably isn’t going to hurt you.
“You’re far more likely to die at a trip to the Grand Canyon than win the Powerball,” Amram Shapiro, a strategic statistician and author of The Book of Odds, told TIME magazine.
Richard Lustig, the author of “Learn How To Increase Your Chances Of Winning The Lottery” is a lottery expert who’s won more than $1 million in seven Florida jackpots playing the lottery.
Lustig says one of the key things you can do is avoid playing easy pick numbers and to select your own set. Stick with that set every time you play.
“The problem with buying quick picks is every time you buy one, you get a different set of numbers. So your odds are always the same,” Lustig said.
Lustig has a handful of other tips you can use prior to buying your tickets.
Powerball is offered in 44 States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Players select five white numbers from (1 to 69) and one red ball (1 to 26) Tickets cost $2 each and can be purchased until 9:45 p.m. ET Wednesday night.
If you don’t have a favorite set of numbers you like to play, there is an “easy pick” option that will select the five white balls and the lone red ball for your ticket.
What prizes can I win?
Here is the breakdown of what you will win based on the number of balls you match:
Five white balls and the Powerball = Grand prize
Five white balls = $1 million
Four white balls and the Powerball = $50,000
Four white balls = $100
Three white balls and the Powerball = $100
Three white balls = $7
Two white balls and the Powerball = $7
One white ball and the Powerball = $4
Powerball = $4
Along with buying your set of numbers for $2, you can add the Power Play option for an extra $1 which gives you a chance to multiply your winnings, as long as it’s not the jackpot. A multiplier will also be drawn that increases your winning by two to four times it’s usual amount.
For example if the Power Play is 3x and you normally would have won $7, your winnings would triple to $21. However, if you match all five white numbers drawn to win $1 million, you can only increase those winnings to $2 million, no matter what the Power Play multiplier is.
How to watch
Players can also tune into the drawing using a smartphone or iPad thanks to the free Powerball and Mega Millions app, LotteryHub. The app is available for Appleproducts here and Androids here. A stream of the Powerball drawing will be posted to the YouTube page Powerball39, which has more than 17,000 subscribers.
Here are 10 things that are more likely to occur than winning the lottery:
1. Dying from an asteroid strike: 1 in 74,817,414
2. Getting killed by a terrorist act in the United States: 1 in 10,000,000
3. Getting murdered during a trip to the Grand Canyon: 1 in 8,156,000
4. Dying from chronic constipation: 1 in 2,215,900
5. Becoming a movie star: 1 in 1,505,000
6. Getting struck by lightning: 1 in 1,101,000
7. Dying from a hornet, wasp or bee sting: 1 in 79,842
8. Bowling a 300 game: 1 in 11,500
9. Being the same height actor Hugh Jackman, who is 6-foot-2: 1 in 23.3
10. Becoming disabled, disfigured or killed by a parasite: 1 in 7.2
