Strong ticket sales across the country, coupled with a boost in interest rates used to fund the annuitized prize, have pushed the Powerball® jackpot even higher ahead of tomorrow night’s drawing!
Game leaders increased the Powerball jackpot on Friday from an estimated $1.23 billion to $1.3 billion. The jackpot has an estimated cash value of $608.9 million. The jackpot ranks as the fourth largest in the Powerball game and eighth largest among U.S. lottery jackpots.
Over the past 30-plus years, there have been many theories on whether players can gain an edge to winning the Powerball. Here are the top three misconceptions:
Misconception 1: You’re better off letting the computer randomly select your numbers versus you choosing your own numbers on a play slip.
How a player selects their numbers does NOT affect their probability of matching the winning Powerball numbers. Every number has the same probability of being drawn in every Powerball drawing. Historically, 82% of Powerball jackpot-winning tickets had winning numbers that were chosen by a computer. That doesn’t mean that method of play is any luckier, simply that more Powerball ticket purchases are quick picks, or had their numbers chosen by a computer. If half of all tickets purchased for a Powerball drawing had numbers that were chosen by a player, then statistically, we would expect player picks to account for half of the winning tickets.
Misconception 2: Powerball jackpot-winning tickets are only sold in big cities and states.
Powerball was designed to be a random game. Every ticket has the same probability of matching the winning numbers drawn, regardless of where a ticket was sold. The number of winning tickets in a location directly correlates to the volume of ticket sales. Typically, there are more winning tickets in cities because they have higher ticket sales compared to rural areas, and therefore, more winners based upon sales volume.
Misconception 3: You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot if less people are playing.
Individual players have the same odds of winning in every Powerball drawing, regardless of the jackpot amount or how many tickets were sold for a particular drawing.
However, as the Powerball jackpot increases there is a greater likelihood of someone winning it. As the jackpot goes up, ticket sales increase, which means more number combinations are being purchased. Based on sales volume, game leaders can estimate how many potential number combinations are covered, assuming each ticket purchase has a unique number combination. Lotteries call this coverage. A higher coverage percentage means there’s a higher chance that the Powerball jackpot will be hit.
Top 10 Powerball Jackpots
- $2.04 Billion – Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
- $1.765 Billion – Oct. 11, 2023 - CA
- $1.586 Billion – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
- $1.3 Billion est. – April 6, 2024
- $1.08 Billion – July 19, 2023 – CA
- $842.4 Million – January 1, 2024 – MI
- $768.4 Million – March 27, 2019 – WI
- $758.7 Million – Aug. 23, 2017 – MA
- $754.6 Million – Feb. 6, 2023 - WA
- $731.1 Million – Jan. 20, 2021 – MD