iStockphoto / Warren-Pender
The Powerball jackpot surged to $1.2 billion after nobody won the grand prize during Halloween’s numbers drawing. This marked the 38th consecutive Powerball drawing in which someone hasn’t won the jackpot.
The $1.2 billion marks the second-highest jackpot total in the history of the multi-state lottery. Back in 2016, a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot set the record. And the current jackpot isn’t terribly far off from surpassing that total given the current interest. All it would take is another couple of missed jackpots and we could be looking at a new Powerball record.
Everyone is convinced they’re going to win the $1.2 billion Powerball jackpot
Now that the Powerball jackpot has reached $1.2 billion, with a current estimated cash value of $596.7 million, everyone in the country is talking about it. And everyone in the country has started daydreaming of what they’ll do after they win the Powerball jackpot and this, in turn, has everyone convinced they’re actually going to win.
Just what we need, a celebrity/actor winning it all:
Perfect! Now’s when I make my move! 🤔
— David Alan Grier (@davidalangrier) November 1, 2022
Me. I’m seriously in need of $1.2 billion:
Who is in serious need of 1.2 billion?
— R (@Nng189R) November 1, 2022
Not my first choice but sure, why not?
When I win Powerball tonight, I’m building an indoor soccer facility in Port Huron. But, in the unlikely event that I don’t win a billion dollars, is there a current person with a lot of money who maybe wants to jump on that?
— Paul Costanzo (@PaulCostanzo) October 31, 2022
Elon’s always catching strays these days:
Breaking: Elon Musk offers 10 billion dollars to buy all the tickets, ensuring he is the winner.
"If you want to win the lottery, you have to be bold and decisive", he said. "Some may think I've overpaid. They can talk to me when they've won the lottery like me", he said.
— Bob Anderson (@rwa_) November 1, 2022
Buying the Jurassic Park house isn’t a terrible idea after winning:
The house has decided to buy this when I win Powerball tonight https://t.co/QI3P8srRjn pic.twitter.com/vXNWXxB7Jm
— Gonzo the Gozerian (@JackGonzo) October 30, 2022
How likely are you to win the Powerball?
Fun fact, or not depending on if you care, but the state of Indiana holds the record for the most Powerball jackpot wins with 39 since the lottery started in 1992.
Do you have a chance of winning? Well, here’s what Robert Williams, ‘a psychologist specializing in gambling and addictions and a professor at the University of Lethbridge in Canada’, told Yahoo! Life about your chances of winning:
“If it takes 10 seconds to fill out a Powerball [or] Mega Millions ticket, and you spent 12 hours a day filling out two-dollar tickets, every day of the year, it would take 90 years and nearly $300 million to have a 50 percent chance of winning the jackpot.”
“If you bought one ticket every day of the year, it would take you 400,000 years to have a 50 percent chance of winning. The Powerball [or] Mega Millions lottery is similar to paying $2 for a chance to guess which blade of grass on a football field is my favorite. You can pay another two dollars for another guess, but each time you guess I am choosing a different favorite blade of grass.”
The next Powerball jackpot drawing is on November 2nd. After I win the jackpot I’m flying to Patagonia, buying an Airstream, and road-tripping back up the Pacific Coast to Alaska.