Don’t want to share? Here’s the smartest way to play tonight’s $160m powerball
If you’re one of the millions of Australians who are hoping to have the lucky ticket to Thursday night’s $160 million Powerball – you’d be wise to be careful on your drive home tonight.
Because, statistically speaking, you’re more like to die on your way home from work today than win the division one prize.
In fact, two members of your family members would also have to die in separate accidents this year before you start getting close to the likelihood of winning the major prize.
Grim, isn’t it?
About half of the adults in Australia are expected to plug in their digits online, watch as the number balls drop on the telly or scrounge around in their wallet to find the ticket they are certain they bought as the biggest lottery jackpot in the nation’s history is drawn tonight.
The hurdle for every ticket-holder is to correctly pick seven numbers, and then the Powerball, to win the division one prize – which statistically is a one in 134,490,400 chance.
About two-thirds of division one winners are QuickPicks – a marked entry – while just over a quarter are Powerhit tickets, which guarantees the all-important Powerball number.
Associate Professor of mathematical sciences at the University of Technology in Sydney Stephen Woodcock said there is no real way to increase your chances of winning the division one prize – other than simply buying more tickets. But there is a way to reduce the number of people likely to choose the same numbers as you, and therefore the number of people with which you share your jackpot.
Earlier this month, more than a few eyebrows were raised when 433 people won the jackpot of a government-backed lottery in the Philippines, the group sharing the 236 million Philippine peso ($AU6.2million) prize.
Many winners called for an investigation into how it occurred, but Woodcock said there was a simple explanation.
“Every time an anomalously large number of people share the jackpot, the numbers have come out in a really regular pattern on the grid. I’ll have one number in the top row; one number in the second row and one number from the third row and so on,” he said.
“The human brain’s idea of what a truly random sequence is quite similar for everyone all around the world.”
Therefore, if you want your numbers to really be your numbers, Woodcock said it is best to remove the human element and get machine-generated figures. Despite this little trick, he said he won’t be buying a ticket.
Of the almost 26 million people living in Australia – 100 are struck by lightning each year. This means your chances of getting struck by lightning in any given year is 540 times more likely than a division one win.
It gets worse.
Even if you’re not feeling greedy and happy to snag a division two prize somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – you’re still 27 more times likely to be struck by lightning in any given year.
About half of all Australian adults are expected to buy a ticket for Thursday night’s Powerball.
Even with a humble division three prize – a few thousand dollars – the odds are still not in your favour lightning-wise. You’re still three times as likely to get struck in a year.
Yes, it seems unlikely. But The Lott spokesperson James Eddy has spoken to the people that do manage to overcome the odds.
Eddy can safely say he’s never spoken to someone who has won $160 million, but has made the call to people who are about to be $40 million better off.
“The reactions are funny from person to person. One of the weirdest I’ve had is just silence. I was sitting on the phone going “hello, hi are you still there?” for a very long time,” he said.
Eddy said the $160 million jackpot has come as a result of no one winning the division one price in the past five Powerball draws.
His advice is for every ticket holder to register their numbers online so they can get an immediate call if they win – avoiding the dreaded possibility of losing your winning ticket.
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