Chances of winning it: 1 in 292.2 million.
By Sreekanth A Nair
The Powerball stands at a mind-boggling $1.5 billion going into Wednesday night’s draw – and the likelihood remains that it will go higher by the time the draw actually takes place with the very likely possibility of it going over $2 billion if nobody emerges a winnertomorrow as well – but some workers at a New Jersey restaurant thought they had won it in last Saturday’s draw itself, when the amount stood at $900 million.
Workers at Grissini’s Restaurant in Englewood Cliffs cried tears of joy and shouted — one even quit his job — after they matched winning Powerball numbers with a lottery ticket they’d purchased for an office pool. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t realize they had read off the wrong day’s winning numbers, reported NBC New York.
Video from the restaurant shows servers, cooks and bartenders celebrating after reading offWednesday’s winning numbers with one of the tickets they bought for Saturday night’s $900 million drawing.
Their ticket, which was purchased Saturday and included numbers 2, 11, 47, 62, 63 and a Powerball of 17, was an exact match for Wednesday’s $528 million prize. No one won inWednesday’s drawing, which prompted the historic $900 million jackpot that later swelled to $1.5 billion after Saturday’s drawing, the report said.
The workers can be seen on video reading through the numbers, with another shouting “Yes!” with each successive match. When the person reading off the ticket announces the Powerball, the entire restaurant erupts in cheers.
A second video shows workers hooping and hollering as though they won the epic jackpot. One man goes around hugging his coworkers and wiping away tears.
It’s not clear when they figured out they’d read the wrong day’s winning numbers, NBC reported.
Going into the draw Wednesday night, there are some unique aspects the lottery itself.
In the past two years there were three Powerball jackpot winners from each Missouri and Tennessee. At the same time fourth most populous state New York had only one winner during this period.
Winners have the option to choose the cash prize, which is the total money that can be taken home currently, which is only a mere $868 million, or go for an annuity over 30 years, which makes it a large stake though.
Also, the chances of winning the jackpot are less than in the past since the multi-state lottery commission added more numbers to choose from. Now the chance has reduced from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292.2 million.
The chance for each ticket is 1 in 292.2 million regardless of the size and number of people playing. When one purchase more tickets, his chance will increase. But still the chance is too low.