Powerball Jackpot Reaches $800 Million, Largest U.S. Prize Ever
(KDKA) - How high will it go?
The Powerball jackpot, already the largest in the United States history, has been boosted yet again to a whopping $800 million. The cash prize is now at $496 million.
Lively ticket sales have propelled the jackpot up at an astounding rate.
The jackpot rolled to $675 million on Wednesday night. On Thursday, continuing strong ticket sales pushed it to a $700 million annuity value or a $428.4 million cash prize.
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How good are the odds? Well, you can't win if you don't but a ticket.
But, Dr. Antony Davies, a professor of statistics and economics at Duquesne University, says don't chance it.
He also says he wasn't surprised that no one won the jackpot even with millions of people playing.
"So this is the interesting thing, the numbers get so large, the people sort of lose sight of what they mean," says Dr. Davies. "The odds are one in 292 million, but if you figure 150 million people are playing the lottery, that's about a 50 percent chance that any one of them would hit the lottery. So it's a 50/50 chance, even with this many people playing."
Now, if you didn't quite get that scenario on your odds of winning, try the vending machine approach from the professor.
"If you walk by vending machines without thinking of it falling over and killing you, then you got no business with the lottery because it's more likely the vending machine would fall over and kill you than it is that you would win the lottery," he says.