The prizes and odds of these games vary from state to state. In many states, a portion of the proceeds from these games go to benefit public education. (The five states with no state-run lottery are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah). states that have some version of a lottery. The other type is state-run games, which vary from state to state. was a Powerball prize worth $1.586 billion, which occurred on January 13, 2016. An average win is between $95 million to $140 million for the Powerball. The minimum grand prize is $20 million for the Powerball and $40 million for Mega Millions. Mega Millions began in 1996 as The Big Game, changing to its current name in 2002.īoth games require the player to match 5 numbers plus a bonus number to win the grand prize. Powerball began in 1988 as Lotto America and took on its current name in 1992. One type is multi-state games, which includes the two most widely-played jackpot games, Powerball® and Mega Millions®. There are two types of lotteries in the United States. any kind of system or method for “beating” the lottery.

One area that I wanted to explore, which I don’t think has been explored before, is the probability of winning a large secondary prize, rather than the grand prize or jackpot. This post provides a high level overview of the different games offered, their prizes, and the probability of winning. A few years ago, I began to take an interest in studying the lottery. Before we get into it, I must preface this post by saying that I am a person of average intelligence and not a statistician or a math wizard.

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