Powerball Lottery: The Odds Against Winning A Billion Dollar Jackpot

By ERIC KIEFER and JUSTIN HEINZE

So you’re after Wednesday’s $1.4 billion Powerball lottery prize. Here’s some news that you already know… the odds are stacked against you.

According to the New Jersey Lottery, the odds of winning Wednesday’s jackpot b ymatching all five balls in any order as well as the red Powerball are one in 292,201,338 per $2 ticket.

That’s less than 1 in 292 million per ticket, stiff odds for even the most devoted optimist.

• See related article: Your Losing Pennsylvania Powerball Ticket Could Be A Winner

Seeking to put these odds in context, Patch compiled five events more likely to happen than winning the next Powerball lottery jackpot:

Be Killed At Work - The rate of fatal work injuries for U.S. workers in 2014 was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Flip A Coin Heads Up 28 Times In A Row - The chances of picking the right combination of numbers is like flipping a coin and getting heads 28 times in a row, Jeffrey Miecznikowski, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University at Buffalo in New York told USA Today.

Bowl A Perfect Game – Mathematicians estimate that the odds of a non-professional bowling a perfect game are about 11,500 to one.

Being Hit By Lightning – According to the National Weather Service, you have a 1 in 12,000 chance of being hit by lightning sometime in your life.

Be Legally Executed – The National Safety Councilestimates that your odds of being legally executed are 1 in 127,717.

File photo via flickr commons