Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren bobibam here. In August two, the Mega
Speaker 1: Millions lottery jackpot hit one point three three seven billion dollars,
Speaker 1: the second largest jackpot in the game's history. It had
Speaker 1: a lot of people stepping up to buy tickets, because
Speaker 1: even if you know for a fact that the odds
Speaker 1: of winning that jackpot are just one in three hundred
Speaker 1: two million, five hundred and seventy five thousand, three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty, even if you know logically that you're far
Speaker 1: more likely to get eaten by a shark or elected president,
Speaker 1: buying a two dollar ticket seems like a small price
Speaker 1: to pay for the chance to be ridiculously rich. According
Speaker 1: to calculations by the statistics nerds at, the number of
Speaker 1: people who play lotteries like Mega Millions or Powerball increases
Speaker 1: exponentially with the cash value of the act pot. In
Speaker 1: other words, the bigger the payoff, the more suckers are
Speaker 1: people play. Here's how it works today. We're going to
Speaker 1: use Powerball as our example. Every time someone wins the
Speaker 1: Powerball jackpot, that jackpot resets to a prize of forty
Speaker 1: million dollars Apparently only die hard powerball players buy tickets
Speaker 1: when the jackpot is below a hundred million, but above
Speaker 1: that milestone, ticket sales begin to rise quickly, and the
Speaker 1: real tipping point, however, according to five thirty eight, occurs
Speaker 1: around two hundred and fifty million, when regular Joe office
Speaker 1: workers start pooling cash and ticket sales inflate to more
Speaker 1: than two hundred million tickets per drawing. For the article
Speaker 1: this episode is based on, Has to Work, spoke with
Speaker 1: Gary Miller, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Lottery, back in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. The Pennsylvania Lottery is one of forty five
Speaker 1: state lotteries, along with lotteries in Washington, d C, Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: and the US Virgin Islands, that participate in the power
Speaker 1: ball game. Miller said there is definitely a sweet spot
Speaker 1: for jackpot size when it comes to motivating players. It
Speaker 1: used to be in the two hundred million range, but
Speaker 1: now players seem to really engage when a jackpot reaches
Speaker 1: three hundred million or above. The lottery is a big business.
Speaker 1: In seen alone, Americans spent seventy one point eight billion
Speaker 1: dollars on lottery games. That's about two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: dollars per adult American that year. But don't think for
Speaker 1: a minute that the Multi State Lottery Association, which operates Powerball,
Speaker 1: doesn't want us to spend even more. In October of
Speaker 1: the Multi State Lottery Association announced some changes to its
Speaker 1: Powerball gaming matrix, which substantially decreased the odds of winning
Speaker 1: the Powerball Grand prize from a bit over one in
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy five million to one in two
Speaker 1: hundred two million, two hundred and one thousand, three hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty eight. And you see, the harder it is
Speaker 1: to win the more the jackpot grows, and the more
Speaker 1: the jackpot grows, the more people buy tickets. Miller confirmed
Speaker 1: that the odds change was made because, quote, we do
Speaker 1: know that powerball players are increasingly motivated by larger jackpots.
Speaker 1: And let's not forget another compelling reason why more lottery
Speaker 1: tickets are sold when there's a big, fat jackpot. Press
Speaker 1: like this. Every time the Powerball or Mega Millions gets big,
Speaker 1: the press pounces on the story, and when you hear
Speaker 1: about it, you may know the odds of winning the
Speaker 1: jackpot are roughly the same as pulling your name out
Speaker 1: of a hat filled with the names of every man, woman,
Speaker 1: and child in America. But if you don't buy a ticket,
Speaker 1: your odds are infinitely worse. By the way, as of
Speaker 1: this recording, the winner of that megabillion's jackpot, who bought
Speaker 1: the ticket somewhere in Illinois, has not stepped forward. And
Speaker 1: while that one point three three seven billion is nothing
Speaker 1: to sneeze at, the largest winning lottery to date was
Speaker 1: a one point five eight six billion dollar powerball jackpot,
Speaker 1: which was split between three winners. In Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article the lottery tipping point, What size
Speaker 1: jack pot makes you play on how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com written by Dave Rouse. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from
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