Low odds but high hopes
Powerball ticket sales are expected to leap as the jackpot hits a record $700 million.
Describing the odds of winning Saturday’s Powerball drawing as “slim” would be an understatement — and so would be calling its jackpot “big.”
For the 18th consecutive time, no one matched all six numbers to the Powerball lottery jackpot Wednesday night. As a result, the estimated prize for Saturday’s drawing has ballooned to an unprecedented $700 million.
To put that in global perspective, the jackpot is larger than the gross domestic product of nine of the world’s island nations, according to the World Bank: Comoros, Dominica, Tonga, Sao Tome and Principe, Micronesia, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
Wednesday’s jackpot was already more than a half-billion dollars. With the prize climbing to unprecedented levels, lottery officials expect the public’s excitement to reach a fever pitch by Saturday.
“I don’t even know how to describe it. This has never happened before,” said California State Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso. “All I can imagine now is seeing how the next three days unfold. Our sales just started today.”
Powerball is played in 44 states and three U.S. territories. The jackpot minimum is $40 million because there are so many participants. In an average week in California, there’s maybe $6 million in sales divided between the Wednesday and Saturday drawings, Traverso said.
The pace picked up before Wednesday’s drawing.
On Tuesday, there were $7 million in sales. On Wednesday, it was $20 million, Traverso said. “It’s pretty nuts,” he said. A good comparison for what store owners and hopeful customers might expect in the state this week would be the $656-million Mega Millions jackpot won in 2012, Traverso said. At the peak of that buying frenzy, sales were up to $10 million an hour, he said. The rush for Powerball tickets Saturday could easily surpass that and push the jackpot higher, he said.
The odds of matching all six numbers are 1 in 292.2 million.