Mega Millions pot hits $1 billion, thanks to revised, longer odds

If it seems like lottery jackpots are getting larger and larger, it’s because they are getting larger and larger.

Friday night’s Mega Millions estimated grand prize hit a staggering $1 billion, continuing a trend of giant jackpots. It’s the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history and joins five other top 10 drawings in the last three years.

In Phoenix, lines inside the Circle K near Seventh and Roosevelt streets were nearly out the door as people waited eagerly to buy their ticket to fortune late Friday afternoon.

Esteban Medina, 22, a cashier at the Circle K, broke out in a full sweat and needed to get some air outside the store.

“It’s been very busy during the Mega Millions. Every one in three customers have been buying tickets,” he said.

The jackpot’s attractive prize has also lured several people who have never purchased a ticket. Omar Larranaga, 20, also was at the Phoenix store.

“This is the first time I’ve ever played,” he said, adding that he would invest his winnings if he is the lucky winner.

Lottery officials changed the odds in recent years to lessen the chance of winning a jackpot, which in turn increased the opportunity for top prizes to reach stratospheric levels.

The theory was that bigger jackpots would draw more attention, leading more players to plop down $2 for a Mega Millions or Powerball ticket. The more tickets sold, the more the jackpots grow, leading to more players and … you get the idea.

Powerball was the first to try the theory in October 2015, when it changed the potential number combinations. In

doing so, Powerball changed the odds of winning the jackpot from one in 175 million to one in 292.2 million. Officials at that time also increased the chances of winning small prizes.

Mega Millions made similar moves in October 2017, resulting in the odds worsening from one in 259 million to one in 302.5 million

States have generally reported increased Mega Millions and Powerball sales since the change. But the ever-increasing jackpots have left them evermore dependent on those massive payouts because prizes that once seemed so immense now seem almost puny in comparison. Consider the current $430 million Powerball jackpot. That’s an incredible amount of money, but compared to the Mega Millions prize hovering around $1 billion, it barely seems worth ticket.

You’re not being rational if you think you have a good chance of winning the jackpot, whether it’s with one ticket or 100. The probabilities are overwhelmingly not in your favor.

How bad are they? Cornelius Nelan, a math professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, notes the odds are about the same as rolling a die and getting a one, 11 times in a row.

Most people don’t expect to win and instead think the $2 ticket is a small price to dream and be part of a wishful conversation with co-workers or family. As Jane L. Risen, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago, puts it: When the jackpot grows so large, “it creates this sense of community. It creates this sense of camaraderie. I also think that it creates a potential sense of regret to not be the one playing,” she said. the bother of buying

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