What are the odds of winning the lottery? A lot depends on the lottery itself. The odds of correctly guessing six numbers out of 45 is probably better than predicting five numbers out of 90. Things get even more complicated when it comes to “jackpots”, where - aside from the winning numbers - players usually have to guess a “special” number correctly for the big win.
Against all odds, people still win at lotteries - and sometimes the wins are truly out of the ordinary.
Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad
The “Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad”, the Spanish lottery’s special Christmas draw, is the largest lottery in the world when it comes to its prize pool. The total amount paid out by it each year exceeds €2 billion (around $2.37 billion), representing 70% of all the ticket sales for the event.
The top prize of the lottery - usually well in excess of €700 million - is divided by a very large number of tickets. In 2011, for example, the €720 million top prize was divided between 180 winning tickets, paying out €4 million for each winner.
Powerball
The “Powerball” is an American lottery available in 45 states and several US territories and is generally considered one of the largest lotteries in the world. After several format changes, it settled at its current one: five white balls are drawn from a pool of 69, and one ball is drawn from a pool of 26 - this is the “Powerball” that gave the lottery its name.
Correctly guessing all six numbers will pay out the lottery’s jackpot. The odds of doing so are pretty slim, though: one in about 292 million. Comparatively, the odds of winning a progressive jackpot at a slot machine are approximately one in 41 million.
Powerball has two of the largest lottery wins on record: $477 million in March 2019, and $480.5 million in August 2017. It also holds the world record for the highest-ever jackpot pool put in play: $1.586 billion, won by three lucky winners in January 2016.
The Powerball jackpot currently stands at $94 million (about $75 million after-tax).
Mega Millions
The world record for the single highest payout on a single lottery ticket is held by another US lottery, Mega Millions, also available in 45 US states and several territories. The odds of hitting its jackpot are better than those of Powerball: the jackpot-winning ticket must have five correct numbers from a pool of 56 and one correct number drawn from a pool of 46 (Mega Ball). So, the odds of hitting the jackpot are at around one in 175 million.
Mega Millions currently holds the title of the biggest payout for a single winning lottery ticket with $878 million, won by a lucky player in South Carolina in 2018.