Your Odds of Winning Powerball Jackpot

The odds of winning Wednesday’s $500 million Powerball jackpot, the largest payoff in nearly a year, are slim, but tickets are still selling at a brisk pace.

A statistics professor at Metropolitan State University in Colorado calculates the odds of winning at about 1 in 292.2 million.

If you still want to take a chance – someone has to win, right -- you have a better chance of hitting the jackpot if you let the computer pick the numbers for you. The Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates the Powerball game, says about 75 percent of winning tickets occur when the numbers are selected by a computer.

Tonight’s drawing for the jackpot would be the biggest winner since a $564.1 million jackpot was won Feb. 11, 2015, according to the Powerball website.

The cash option payout for Wednesday’s drawing is estimated at $306 million.

The Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Check for results at galottery.com.

The Georgia Lottery is one of 45 lotteries nationwide that participate in the Powerball drawing.

Powerball tickets can be purchased at any lottery vendor.

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»What would you do with the jackpot? Tell us in the comments.