Millions of lottery players across the United States will try their luck again this Monday night, hoping to win Powerball’s unprecedented ‘jackpot’, estimated at $1.9 billion.
This ‘jackpot’ is nearly $400 million higher than the previous record and will continue to grow until someone wins it, reports the Associated Press (AP).
At the current exchange rate, the dollar premium has a similar value in euros.
Only four previous punters have won prizes of $1 billion, but none have come close to the current prize pool, which started at $20 million on August 6 and over the course of three months without a win has only grown larger.
The winner who opts for a one-time payment will receive about $929.1 million, while those who choose to receive annually, over 29 years, will receive $1.9 billion.
Even if more people are enticed to play, due to the huge prize pool, by spending two dollars on each Powerball ticket, the tough odds of winning one in 292.2 million means there’s still a good chance a draw will take place. plus. get the ‘jackpot’.
In this case, the ‘jackpot’ of Wednesday’s draw would exceed 2,000 million dollars.
The fact that 40 draws have already passed without a winner leads one to wonder if there is something wrong. But the game is designed this way, with odds of 1 in 292 million, so it’s hard to beat someone until a high bet brings in more players.
Higher sales also mean that the lottery raises more money for public programs, one of the goals of this type of game.
In any case, without a winner this Monday night there will be a new record of 41 draws without anyone matching all six numbers.
At the beginning of this ‘jackpot’, with 20 million dollars, bettors bought enough tickets to cover about 10% of the possible combinations, a figure that rose to 62% on Saturday night.
However, this percentage is still lower than the 88.6% achieved in the previous record jackpot in 2016. That is to say, this Monday, if 38% of the possible number combinations are not covered, there is a good chance that there will be no winner. .
Like Euromillions in Europe or Totoloto in Portugal, players can choose the numbers, but the vast majority let the machine choose the numbers at random.
Powerball winners must decide if they want to receive less than the full amount all at once, or receive the full amount over 29 years.
Either way, federal value taxes apply, reducing the premium by more than a third. Lottery winnings are taxed in many US states, which also affects the final value.
Source: TSF
