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a christmas eve powerball The drawing could add new meaning to the holiday cheer as millions of players hope to cash in on the $1.7 billion prize, which comes after months without a jackpot winner.
United States of AmericaThe fourth-largest jackpot on record comes after 46 consecutive draws in which no one has claimed all six numbers. The last contest with a jackpot winner was on 6 September. The game’s long odds had people decking out the halls and shelling out $2 — and sometimes more — for tickets ahead of Wednesday night’s live drawing.
This is a sign that the game is running as intended. lottery Officials made the odds harder in 2015 as a mechanism for snowballing jackpots, while also making it easier to win smaller prizes.
A Powerball spokesperson said the Christmas holidays are not expected to impact the drawing process if a winning ticket is found.
Here’s what to know about Wednesday’s drawing:
Christmas Eve Cha-Ching
That ticket tucked away in the stocking or under the tree could be worth a billion dollars — but with a few caveats.
Powerball is played in 45 states, including Washington, DC. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Most of these regions require players to be 18 years of age or older, although some states have higher requirements. In Nebraska, players must be at least 19 years old, and in Louisiana and Arizona, people cannot purchase tickets until they are 21 years old.
Winning tickets must also be redeemed in the states where they were purchased. And players cannot purchase tickets in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada or Utah.
Plus, lottery officials argue that a lucky Powerball ticket can be a gift that keeps on giving.
Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, said Tuesday: “Just think of the stories you can tell future generations about the year you woke up a billionaire at Christmas.”
A range of awards may be presented
Wednesday’s $1.7 billion jackpot has a cash value of $781.3 million.
A winner can choose to pay the entire amount through an annuity, which consists of an immediate payment and then annual payments over 29 years increasing by 5% each time. However, most winners usually choose the cash value for a lump sum.
The odds for the top prize are high, but players can also win smaller prizes.
In the final drawing, players from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin each won $1 million. There are also prizes outside the jackpot ranging from a few dollars to $2 million.
One woman told Powerball officials she’s already made plans for her $1 million win: “We’re going to pay off our cars and credit cards and get a bigger house!”
and Thomas Anderson of Burlington, North CarolinaAccording to Powerball, he said he wants to use his $100,000 Powerball win earlier this month to go back to school.
Long Odds for Billion Dollar Jackpot
Lottery officials set the odds at 1 in 292.2 million in the hope that a jackpot will hit with each of the three weekly drawings until the pool becomes so full that more people pay attention and play.
The odds used to be significantly better, at 1 in 175 million. But the game was made harder in 2015 to create rewards that are out of this world. The tough odds partly helped set the stage for back-to-back record-breaking sweepstakes this year.
The last time someone won a Powerball pot was September 6, when players from Missouri and Texas won $1.787 billion, the second-largest top prize in US history.
More than a dozen lottery jackpot prizes in the US have exceeded $1 billion since 2016. The largest US jackpot to date was $2.04 billion in 2022.
More information about those adverse circumstances
It’s hard to explain what a probability of 1 in 292.2 million means. Even if reduced to half, it remains difficult to digest.
In the past, a mathematics professor described the probability of tossing a coin and getting heads 28 times in a row.
Tim Chartier, a mathematics professor at Davidson College in North Carolina, on Monday compared the chances of winning a lottery ticket to picking a marked dollar bill from a stack 19 miles (31 kilometers) high.
“It’s true that if you buy 100 tickets, your chances of winning are 100 times more likely. But in this case, the ‘100 times more likely’ probability barely moves the needle,” Chartier said. “Using a time analogy, buying 100 tickets is like making 100 guesses to name the person chosen second in nine years. Possible – but extremely unlikely.”
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.