Powerball and Mega Millions Both Top $500M

(Radio Iowa) The jackpots for both the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings have moved beyond the 500 million dollar mark. Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says that’s a rare thing.

“This is only the third time in the history of both Powerball and Mega Millions that both jackpots have been above the 500 million mark at the same time,” she says. The Powerball drawing is estimated $875 million, while Mega Millions is estimated at $560 million.

“The difference there is that extra drawing per week, a few years ago another drawing was added in the Powerball game so that Powerball has three drawings a week now, Mega Millions has two,” Neubauer says. “And that’s where that bump that Powerball is getting comes from because with another drawing per week, you just have people buying more tickets and that drives sales faster.” Around 90 percent of players let the computer pick their numbers. Neubauer says your chances are the same whether you do that or choose your own numbers.

“Every ticket in the game has the same odds of winning it doesn’t matter if it’s an easy pick or you choose your own numbers there are just a lot more easy-pick winners because that’s the vast majority of tickets that are purchased in the games,” she explains. The odds of winning are based on the number of number combinations.

“In Powerball for example, the odds of winning the jackpot are about one in 292-point-two-million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play,” she says. The one thing that is the same for both games is the 8:59 pm sales cut-off for ticket purchases.

“There have been people who waited right up until that moment and then were too late to buy a ticket and then they were arguing about the time that showed on their watch versus the time that showed on a lottery terminal. But truly, it’s an automatic cut-off,” Neubauer says. The next Mega Millions drawing is tonight (Friday) and the next Powerball draw is Saturday.