Poweball jackpot hits $1.5B as sales surge

The more chances you have at buying more than one ticket, the more chances you have at winning.

Of course you don’t get to keep all $1.5 billion. The game can be played in 44 states. In fiscal year 2015 that was more than 300 million dollars.

A woman holds Powerball lottery tickets outside Bluebird Liquor in Hawthorne, Los Angeles, Californi … It’s the largest Powerball jackpot in history.

In order to get lots of publicity, so morning TV reporters would be standing in convenience stores talking about Powerball for a week.

When the lottery jackpot is at more typical amounts, the Quick Stop cashier said he usually sees numerous same people playing.

Usually in Blaine, Washington, just south of the Canadian border it’s the price of gas that brings Canadians into the states, but this week it’s the $1.5 billion jackpot.

The prize is large enough that a victor choosing the option of receiving 30 $50 million installments over the next 29 years could easily pay off the $129,579 in debt the average USA household carried at the end of last year, according to NerdWallet’s Annual American Household Credit Card debt.

Expected value: Kaplan said one reason so many people are going out and buying Powerball tickets who don’t normally buy tickets is that the expected value is much higher on a ticket with such a high jackpot.

There are a number of online scams cropping up online, so it’s important to only use the state-run websites listed above to buy your tickets online. You have to pick both to win the jackpot. Lottery officials say that during the 11 a.m. hour on Tuesday, sales in California were $7.62 million, compared with $4.64 million for the same period on Monday. The jackpot estimate is reviewed daily, so it could increase before Wednesday night’s drawing if ticket sales continue to exceed expectations.

“It’s good that they’re directing the money in a positive place”, Scaife said. Kaplan said that just about never happens.

Tony Floyd passes his money through the window while purchasing a Powerball ticket at the Elvis Presley BP near the state line in Memphis, Tenn., Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016.