What are Your Odds of Winning the Lottery?

What are Your Odds of Winning the Lottery?

Have you ever wondered what your real odds of winning the lottery are? What are your chances of hitting Mega Millions or PowerBall?

You may often hear people say: “you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery.” But that's not exactly true. Those people are forgetting that there are many different prizes in each lottery. You don't have to hit the jackpot to come away with a lot of money. In fact, in 1997, the North American Association of State and Provincial lotteries debunked the lottery myth. Here's what they concluded …

“In one year alone (1996) 1,136 people won a million dollars or more and an additional 4,520 won $100,000 or more by playing North American lotteries. By contrast, 91 people were killed by lightning during that same year.”

Source: http://www.naspl.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=content&PageID=32&PageCategory=45

So, what are your real odds of winning the biggest lotteries? Let's look at the two biggest jackpots.

Mega Millions

Matching Numbers

+ Mega Ball Match

Prize

Jackpot

$250,000

$10,000

$150

$10

Odds

1 in 175,711,536

1 in 3,904,701

1 in 689,065

1 in 15,313

1 in 13,781

1 in 306

1 in 844

1 in 141

1 in 75

Over all chances of winning at least ONE prize: 1 in 40!

Source: http://www.megamillions.com/howto/

Powerball

Matching Numbers

+ Powerball Match

Prize

Jackpot

$200,000

$10,000

$100

Odds

1 in 195,249,054

1 in 5,138,133

1 in 723,144

1 in 19,030

1 in 13,644

1 in 359

1 in 787

1 in 123

1 in 61

Over all chances of winning at least ONE prize: 1 in 35!

Source: http://powerball.com/powerball/pb_prizes.asp

As you can see, the odds aren't so bad! By playing just one ticket in either lottery, you have about a 1 in 35 chance of winning your money back, or more. And your odds improve for every ticket you buy!