HOW TO WIN THE POWERBALL LOTTERY

Easy: Pick the five correct numbers and the Powerball.  You don't play you can't win.  

The odds are only 292 million to one.   The first five numbers are drawn from numbers one through sixty-nine-nine, and the power ball from numbers one through twenty-six.

The odds of winning with the first five picks for one million dollars is one-in = eleven million, two hundred thirty-eight thousand, five hundred and thirteen: 1 in 11,238,513.

 The odds of actually winning the Powerball jackpot is one-in = two hundred ninety two million, two hundred and one thousand, three hundred and thirty eight: 1 in 292,201,338.

The idea that one combination of numbers is better than another is BS.   You could pick numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 and have the same odds as any other combination of numbers. 

However, if you pick a well-known group of numbers like the Fibonacci sequence, and it wins, you would probably have to split the winnings with more players.  

   

My wife and I spend about two dollars on lottery tickets once a week.   We have no expectation of winning, but it is that minute possibility that is enticing. 

I have the same chance of being struck by lightning 365 times as winning the Powerball. 

 

I have actually had two close lightning calls; but I don’t plan to stand out in thunder storms hoping for another 263.   Nor do I plan to win the lottery.  

But, against the odds, for two dollars, I will buy a ticket.

the Ol’Buzzard

WINNING THE LOTTERY

I buy a $2.00 lottery ticket every week.   That means I spend $104.00 a year on chance.  

The chance of winning the Maine Megabucks is one chance in fifteen million.

There were fifteen people in the US struck by lightning last year.  The population of the US is three-hundred and twenty-three million.   This works out (when rounded off) to one chance in fifteen million you will be struck by lightning.

I have had two lightning incidents so far in my life.   In Italy I was leaning against the aircraft when it was hit by lightning.   My left arm had no feeling in it for almost three weeks. 

In Florida I was riding my motorcycle home in a thunder storm when lightning struck the ditch beside the road.  The next thing I knew I was sitting in the road stunned and after checking myself for injuries I crawled to my bike and hit the kill switch.  I was able to get back on the bike and make it under an overpass where I waited out the storm. 

I figure I am overdue on the lottery.

the Ol’Buzzard