Gene J. Puskar / AP
A Powerball ticket purchased in a convenience store in Lancaster, Pa., is held in front of a Pennsylvania Lottery computer screen advertising the record $1.4 billion Powerball jackpot, Jan. 11, 2015.
Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016 | 2 a.m.
With odds of 1 in 292.2 million of winning the now $1.4 billion Powerball lottery prize, ticket buyers are counting on astronomical luck for a shot at the United States’ largest-ever lottery jackpot.
But with the next drawing fast approaching on Wednesday evening, lottery shoppers on the Nevada-California border are lining up in record numbers.
On Saturday, “near record” crowds of lottery shoppers waited for over two hours at the Primm Valley Lotto Store, said Russell Lopez, a California Lottery spokesman.
Lopez wouldn’t give exact figures but said the Primm store sells more lottery tickets than any other outlet in California. Gold Ranch Lottery in Floriston, Calif., near Reno, is the state’s second-highest seller.
“Our stores on the Nevada border are always well performing, and do very well for the area.” Lopez said. “Especially now, with so many people excited about the Powerball jackpot."
For those who choose to play, here’s how buyers’ chances of cashing in on the record Powerball jackpot compares to other rare occurrences:
Hitting double zeroes in roulette
Roulette players have a 1 in 37 chance of having their number come up by betting 00. The payout may not be as big as a lottery jackpot, but Las Vegans certainly don’t have to drive as far to play roulette.
Winning a progressive slot jackpot
Similar to the Powerball’s 1 in 25 million chance for at winning a “smaller” prize, a wide-area progressive slot, such as Money Vault, yields 1 in 25 million odds for those playing in Nevada. In 2012, a U.S. Marine hit a $2.8 million jackpot on a progressive slot machine at the Bellagio.
Picking a perfect NCAA bracket
One of the few items with odds far longer than winning the Powerball, filling out a perfect bracket can have odds as ominous as 1 in 100 million trillion, according to an AP report.
Just picking the winners in the first two rounds alone in the NCAA tournament carries odds of 1 in about 13.5 million, the report said.
Getting hit by lightning
A person has 1 in 1.9 million odds of being struck by lightning during a given year and 1 in 12,000 odds of being struck during their lifetime, according to the National Weather Service.
Being struck by an asteroid
The chances of being hit by an asteroid are about 1 in 1.6 million, over 18,000 times more likely than hitting the Powerball jackpot, according to a 2014 study by the University of Tulane.
Hitting a royal flush in video poker
On average, one in every 40,387 plays on a video poker machine yields a royal flush, according to WizardofOdds.com, a website that provides statistical analysis of casino games.
Being attacked by a shark
The odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 2.9 million, according to a 2014 report from the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. And swimmers face a 1 in 3.5 million chance of drowning at the beach.
Editor’s note: This story is an updated version of a similar story published Nov. 26, 2012, at lasvegassun.com.
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