After the Powerball jackpot hit $400 million Monday, as previously reported by HNGN, the prize has risen to an estimated $450 million, marking the biggest lottery prize in almost a year since the Powerball prize of $564.1 million last February, according to CNBC. The previous prize was taken home by players from North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico.
The current record for the largest jackpot in the United States is the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot that was won back in March 2012, whereas the record for Powerball is currently the $590.5 million prize that was taken home by a Florida woman back in May 2013.
Of course, if you have high hopes of winning, it's best to keep your expectations in check — the odds are one in 292.2 million, meaning you're going to need quite a bit of luck on your side to take this one home, according to 9News. To put things into perspective, your chances of being hit by lightning in a one year period are one in 960,000, so you're likely better off avoiding metal in the rain than banking on taking home the Powerball jackpot.
Even at $2 per ticket, many people believe there are better things to spend your money on, including Ben Dyhr, a statistics professor at Metropolitan State University.
"It's a very bad investment, and there are probably much better investment opportunities out there, even for people with just a little bit of money, I think," he said. "First of all, it's extremely unlikely. You do have a big jackpot, but you might be better off investing in a better insurance policy. Because that, in some sense, it's a little morbid, but you could have a big jackpot, in that case too... there are actually better odds, unfortunately, of getting really hurt, than winning the lottery."
For anyone who is going to participate in the massive Powerball lottery, the drawing is scheduled for 10:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to MarketWatch.
