Powerball's jackpot odds are 1 in 292,201,338. Mega Millions is about 1 in 302,575,350. Those figures come from counting combinations: 69 white balls choose 5, times 26 red balls.
To picture it, imagine 292 million people lined up and one holding the winning ticket. Buying 10 tickets a week for 50 years gives you 26,000 tickets, a chance of roughly 1 in 11,000 of winning once.
The odds of winning any prize are far kinder, about 1 in 24.9 for Powerball. Explore the breakdown with the lottery odds calculator.
Record prizes happen because rollovers pile up when nobody hits. The largest lottery jackpots list shows that nearly every billion-dollar prize followed a long drought of 25 or more drawings.
If the improbable happens, read the what to do if you win the lottery guide first: sign the ticket, keep it safe, and talk to a tax adviser before claiming.
Takeaway: a ticket is entertainment at $2, not an investment.
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