Your chances of winning the Powerball lottery are zero whether you purchase any tickets or not.
For the six-ball jackpot, the possible permutations of drawing five white balls out of 69, and one red ball from 26, while not restricting the white balls to one unique series = (69 * 68 * 67 * 66 * 65 * 26) / (5 * 4 * 3 * 2) = 292,201,338.
Each $2 ticket gives you one chance out of 292.2 million. That's equivalent to selecting exactly one pixel from a square image of 17,094 pixels on a side. Try it on your screen sometime.
The odds of getting involved in a fatal car crash were estimated to be about one in 1,200. That was a decade ago. Might be higher or lower today, based on safer cars, or crazier drivers, or too many distractions. Using the 1,200 number, your chances of being in a fatal car crash are 292,201,338 / 1,200 = 243,501 times greater than winning the Powerball jackpot.
One chance in 292,201,338 possible outcomes = 0.0000000034. That's 0.00000034%. That means each ticket you purchase has a 99.99999966% chance of losing.
If you're content with settling for just getting the five white-ball sequence right, your odds improve by a factor of 26. That's one chance in 11,238,513; like picking one pixel from square image of 3,352 pixels on a side. Fatal car crash is only 9,365 times more likely. P(winning five white-ball sequence) = 0.000000089. Each ticket you purchase has a 99.9999911% chance of losing.
Someone occasionally wins, but we're seeing credible reports of lottery fraud, where the same individual wins two or three different drawings; a statistical impossibility. We see a lot of that here at the Lab lately.
Take whatever chances you want in life, but at least understand the probability of success.
Unless you win.
I agree with your thoughts on this.
Someone will win.
The person that wins will have purchased a ticket.
Is it worth $10 bucks to contemplate what you would do if you won, when you actually do have a one in 292 million chance of winning? Well, yes and no.
There is the enjoyment of fantasizing. At least you know you are fantasizing. I’ve made a lot more important decisions in life than this, and later found out I was fantasizing.
“Your chances of winning the Powerball lottery are zero whether you purchase any tickets or not.”
If you buy a single ticket, your chance of winning is 1 in 292.2 million. If you do not buy a ticket, your chance of winning is zero in 292.2 million. One is not equal to zero, so your statement is false.
Also, any time that the potential amount to be won is greater than the amount you bet multiplied by the odds against you, the odds are on your side. That’s probably not the case this week, when you consider taxes and the chance of multiple winners.
I’ll play the lottery this week anyway, though I very seldom do, and have never won so much as a dollar in any lottery. I have no real expectation of winning, but I’ll get my money’s worth before the drawing, imagining what I’d do if I did win the whole thing.
That's why I drive as fast as I can to buy a Powerball ticket from 2 different stores, to improve the odds of winning the Powerball ticket.../s