Strategies for Winning the $305 Million Powerball Jackpot
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William Thomas Cain/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $305 million. The prize grew after no one matched all six numbers in the multi-state lottery drawing Saturday night.
The winning numbers were 4, 13, 39, 46 and 51. The Powerball was 1.
Although no one hit the jackpot, several people made out nicely. Five Powerball tickets won $1 million because they matched five of the six winning numbers, according to the official Powerball website. The million-dollar tickets were sold in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The next Powerball drawing is now scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 15. If you’re planning to purchase a ticket, you should know that the odds of winning $1 million are one in 5.1 million. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175 million.
Richard Lustig, a seven-time lottery winner from Florida, plays the lottery every single day, like a full-time job. Sure, he loses sometimes, but he’s also won more than $1 million.
He has this advice for lottery hopefuls:
- Do your research. Go online and make sure the set or sets of numbers you play have never come up before.
- Have a plan. You have to learn what number to play and how often to play. Commit to your numbers and stick to your strategy.
- Choose your own numbers. Don’t leave it up to the machine.
- Don’t get swept up in the excitement. When jackpots get this high, Lustig says, people tend to get lottery fever and spend a lot more than they normally would or can afford. Don’t go crazy; the odds are still the same no matter how much you spend.
Mathematicians and lottery officials have said that the odds of winning are always the same regardless of how many people play because the lottery is always drawn from the same set of numbers.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio