Name: Whats driving the lotterys sky-high jackpot?
Uploaded: 2025-12-23T00:50:13.638Z
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: The top five largest lottery jackpots have all come in the last three years, and there are a couple of reasons for that.

The top five largest lottery jackpots have all come in the last three years, and there are a couple of reasons for that.

Georgia

The United States is experiencing a surge in lottery jackpots, with the latest Powerball drawing reaching $1.6 billion, making it the fifth largest in the country's history. This trend is attributed to deliberate changes by lottery organizers, such as increasing the range of numbers and raising ticket prices, which make it harder to win and drive up the prize amounts as more people participate.

Additionally, higher Federal Reserve interest rates have allowed lotteries to advertise larger annuity jackpots, though most winners opt for a lump sum payout, which is significantly less than the advertised amount. Despite the excitement around these massive prizes, the odds of winning remain extremely low—far less likely than being struck by lightning or experiencing other rare events.

What's driving the lottery's sky-high jackpot?

a play of chance. Tonight we have another life-changing jackpot for you and the chance to dream. I would be so less stressed if I had a billion dollars. America's obsession with the lottery is growing as jackpots balloon. Everybody want to be a millionaire so they they're coming our way. Monday's 1.6 billion dollar Powerball drawing is the fifth largest pot in U.S. lottery history and it's part of a trend of growing jackpots. The top five largest all in the last three years. The prize gets bigger it gets bigger it gets bigger and it snowballs more people start playing it gets even bigger more people start playing it gets even bigger and then lo and behold a couple weeks go by and you get to a billion dollar jackpot. Author Jonathan Cohen says bigger jackpots are by design. That the people who run the lottery have made it harder to win because people people who buy tickets care a lot more about the size of the jackpot than they do about their odds of winning. In 2015 Powerball increased the range of numbers for the first five white balls giving players slimmer odds of perfectly matching each number and taking home the grand prize. Higher ticket prices are driving up jackpots too. Powerball ups prices in 2012 to two dollars per ticket and in April mega millions increased its ticket price to five dollars. A share of every ticket is going to go not just to prizes but specifically to the top prize. Another factor in ginormous jackpots the federal reserve. Lotteries advertise the deferred annuity payment a winner would get if they got paid out over about 30 years because the fed's interest rate has been relatively higher over the past few years. Lotteries are able to advertise bigger jackpots. The most important thing is the size of the prize that can go on a billboard. Any little trick of financial management they can do to project a slightly higher jackpot if you were to take the the multi-year annuity they're going to do it because that's how they know they get people in the door in the first place. So that annuity payment in this case the 1.6 billion dollars that's what's advertised but a reality check most people who win decide to take the lump sum which in this case would be about 735 million dollars before taxes which I don't know what you don't but that's not too shabby. I've got a laundry list of vacations I'd love to go to maybe some investment properties we'd buy what what would you do with the 735 million that we could be getting from these? My wife knows I want to buy a villa in Italy so if you hear me on the air saying you don't know cappuccino italiano you'll know that maybe just maybe I did it or my name to something Italian yeah but you know I guess now everybody we talk an awful lot about how much you're going to win and how happy we're going to be and we never win but what are the actual odds just in case we think we think we might stand a snowball's chance in hell? I mean just in case you want to have a plan right but unfortunately the odds are astronomically low lottery officials say that there's a one in 292.2 million shot of winning this jackpot and when you put it into perspective of some other things that you're more likely to experience you have a higher chance of being struck by lightning dying in a shark attack or hitting two hole-in-one shots in one round of golf all of those things a lot more likely statistically according to probability than actually winning this powerball unfortunately Del. Yeah two out of three this week already so maybe this is my year to win the lottery business and tech correspondent Mara Barrett for us live in Denver Mara thank you very much.

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