Lottery Fever Will Reach Epidemic Status This Weekend
You didn't win Wednesday night's Powerball big money jackpot. So, you need to get your back end out of bed and go to work. Those dreams of a new bass boat, a walk-in closet full of shoes, and crime-free New Orleans will have to wait until at least Friday night.
While there was no big money winner in the Wednesday night Powerball drawing, there were a few tickets sold that matched all the white ping pong balls but missed on the Powerball. That's got to be a miserable feeling but in a million dollar way.
If you didn't hear, there was no big money winner in the Tuesday Mega Millions drawing either. That means this Friday and Saturday night you will have a couple of shots at changing your life and most likely the life of generations of your family members.
Friday the Mega Millions jackpot is expected to be at least $382 million with a cash payout of $238 million. Meanwhile, on Saturday the Powerball jackpot should be at least $356 million with a cash option of $224 million.
If you were the luckiest person in the history of history you could wake up Sunday morning with a net worth of $738 million to $462 million depending on what payout options you chose.
According to this story published on CNN.com your odds of having that scenario happening are slightly less than "no way in hell".
But the the odds of winning both are absolutely staggering: A bit worse than 1 in 75.6 quadrillion, or 1 in 75,648,252,765,957,300 to be precise. On a percentage basis, you have only a 0.000000000000000013% chance of holding both winning tickets.
In other words, you've got a better chance of being struck by lightning while giving birth to a hippo in the middle of Saints' Superbowl win over the cast of the Golden Girls.
Still, since it could happen why couldn't it happen to you? It's the existential equivalent of "here hold my beer while I screw up the time space continuum". I say if you can afford to lose a few bucks why not take a shot. You could get lucky enough to win enough money to buy a six pack and a Slim Jim and sometimes that's really all you need to be happy.