You can guarantee winning the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot — but you'll need an army (2024)
At this point you should probably buy at least one Powerball ticket.
One ticket is the difference between having a 1-in-292,201,338 chance of winning the now-$1.3 billion jackpot — or absolutely no chance.
That's because there is a way to 100% guarantee you will hit the jackpot: Buy enough tickets to cover every possible number combination before a drawing.
Powerball recently changed its drawing setup. These days, a machine sucks up five white balls from a bin of 69 balls, each with a different number. It also sucks up one red Powerball from a bin of 26 different balls.
To take home the jackpot, your ticket must have the same five white numbers — order doesn't matter — and the one red number.
If you do the math, there are 11,238,513 possible combinations of five white balls (without order mattering). Multiply that by the 26 possible red balls, and you get 292,201,338 possible Powerball number combinations.
At $2 per ticket, you'd need $584,402,676 to buy every single combination and guarantee a win.
But think this out for a moment.
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The Powerball draws only twice a week: Every Wednesday and Saturday. So how are you going to print that many tickets in less than four days? Even if you can cram multiple picks onto one ticket? And just how do you plan to ensure each combination is different?
You'd need an army of trustworthy people at thousands of locations across the country, sucking the Powerball ticket-printing machines dry. You'd need state, regional, and local coordinators to keep everything streamlined, and good technology to verify every number requested is different. Plus scary-sounding contracts to make sure none of your workers walk off with your winnings.
You have to weigh the risk that one or more other people got the winning combination for that draw, too — forcing the lottery commission to split up the jackpot. Even though you're raising the jackpot by buying so many tickets, one (very likely) fluke could leave you in the red.
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At the end of the day, buying out the lottery isn't practical. But buying just one ticket, especially now, does make economic sense.
"I prayed to God to help me," he said. "My kids are young and I'm not that healthy." Officials said Saephan decided to take his winnings as a lump sum, $422 million after taxes, with his wife Duanpen Saephan, 37, and friend Laiza Chao, 55, of Milwaukie.
Cheng “Charlie” Saephan said he is sharing the prize with his wife, Duanpen Saephan, and friend Laiza Chao. The trio chose the cash option of over $422 million after taxes. Chao will receive 50% of the earnings and the Saephans will each take 25%.
The California Lottery announced Friday the winner of last summer's Powerball jackpot worth $1.08 billion. Lottery officials said Yanira Alvarez is the lucky lady who matched all the numbers with the ticket purchased at Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles in July.
Mathematically, you can increase your chances of winning by buying more tickets. That's the only way to increase your chance of winning. But buying more tickets is useless if you are making the wrong choices. One of the reasons most players don't play 1-2-3-4-5-6 is that many players do the same thing.
Massive Powerball win draws attention to a little-known immigrant culture in US. Cheng "Charlie" Saephan laughs while speaking during a press conference after it was revealed that he was one of the winners of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot at the Oregon Lottery headquarters on April 29, 2024, in Salem, Ore.
A massive Powerball win draws attention to a little-known immigrant culture in the US. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize. Powerball Lottery winner, Cheng 'Charlie' Saephan, celebrates his big win at the Oregon Lottery offices in Salem, Ore., on April 29, 2024.
Yanira Alvarez purchased the winning ticket last July from Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles, according to a California Lottery news release.
4 billion Powerball jackpot on Jan. 13, 2016: This jackpot was split between three tickets sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, Naifeh's Food Mart in Munford, Tennessee, and a Publix grocery store in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Well, according to the California Lottery, that lucky winner has claimed her prize! Lottery officials released the winner's name Friday, identifying her as Yanira Alvarez. She bought the ticket at Las Palmitas Mini Market in July 2023, ending a 39-draw jackpot run for Powerball.
Most people can only dream of winning the lottery, so it is crazy to hear of lucky folks who have hit jackpots not just once, but multiple times. Well Stefan Mandel is one of those people, winning a whopping 14 times, but for him, luck didn't have much to do with it.
To find the odds of winning any lottery, divide the number of winning lottery numbers by the total number of possible lottery numbers. If the numbers are chosen from a set and the order of the numbers doesn't matter, use the formula. r !( n − r ) !
Avoid following a pattern or choosing numbers that have a special meaning for you, since numbers that are grouped together or follow a pattern are less likely to win. If you're not sure how to pick, buy a quick pick ticket where random numbers are selected for you. To improve your odds, buy as many tickets as you can.
Jackpot winners may choose to receive their prize as an annuity, paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or a lump-sum payment. All lower-tier prizes are set cash amounts.
Oliver Swanick is a former Powder Ganger who survived the Nipton massacre by winning the Legion lottery. He is found during the Courier's first arrival at Nipton in Fallout: New Vegas.
Theodore “Theo” Struyck, 65, was named in March as the representative of a group that bought the $1.76 billion Powerball ticket at a market in Frazier Park for the Oct.11 drawing. The rest of the crew has remained a mystery, and the ultra-private Struyck has laid low, supposedly staying with family near San Diego.
Introduction: My name is Tyson Zemlak, I am a excited, light, sparkling, super, open, fair, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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