Powerball $150m jackpot: How to choose numbers that will boost your winnings
As the Powerball jackpot soars to a staggering $150m this week, the nation heads into uncharted territory.
Never before has any lottery game in Australia seen a prize as big as the one on offer tonight.
The jackpot comes after no players held a Division One winning entry in last week’s draw, prompting the game to roll higher for the eighth consecutive week.
The Powerball hype has reached fever pitch, with millions scrambling to get their tickets by 7.30pm (AEST) for tonight’s historic draw.
But for those dreaming of landing the coveted Division One jackpot, they probably haven’t contemplated sharing the prize with anybody else.
According to Professor John Croucher at Macquarie University’s Business School, there are certain types of numbers to avoid to minimise the risk of dividing the jackpot with others who have the same numbers.
“If you choose a pattern you’re more likely to share it,” the statistician told Yahoo News Australia.
“The chances of you sharing it will shift depending on whether you pick birthdays for example. People who pick numbers above 31 are probably less likely to share it.”
Professor Croucher said common sequences included 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 2,4,6,8,10,12,14 while some people focused on specific numbers reappearing in others such as 1 in 11, 21, and 31.
He noted that about half of Powerball entries are from people selecting their desired numbers, which going by The Lott’s estimations, would equate to one quarter of all Australian adults.
Does every Powerball ticket have the same chance of winning?
While The Lott regularly promotes the $24 Powerhit ticket, which is essentially 20 separate games with the same seven main numbers using each Powerball number, other single game tickets have exactly the same chance as winning regardless the numbers on the ticket.
“They’re all the same. It doesn’t remember what they got last time and it’s just the same,” Professor Croucher said.
While many find it hard to believe he said a ticket with numbers 1 to 7 has exactly the same chance as seven randomly picked numbers, he said they all have the same chance.
He also dispelled the furore around hot and cold numbers which have or haven’t appeared in previous draws.
“You can say some numbers are drawn more often than others, and then on the other hand you can say some numbers are overdue, or haven’t been pulled out as much as they should have done statistically but it makes no difference because it all starts afresh,” he said.
“It’s like a pokie machine. It doesn’t remember whether its just paid a jackpot or not.”
Why does the Powerball main prize keep jackpotting?
Last week Yahoo News Australia revealed that the reason behind 2019’s record-breaking year when it came to the Division One prize was down to a subtle rule change in April 2018.
Seven numbers from 35 are now drawn instead of six from 40 previously.
[The likelihood of winning] went from one in 76 million to one in 134 million,” Professor Croucher noted.
And while the Lott noted at the time it would make more winners thanks to the introduction of a Division Nine prize, Professor Croucher said the move wasn’t necessarily in the best interests of participants.
“They’re giving away more prizes but its much harder to win the big prize which is of course the one everybody wants,” he said.
Last Thursday’s Division Nine prize was $10.90.
Australia prepares for record-breaking Powerball draw
The Lott spokesperson Lauren Cooney predicts up to half of all Australian adults will have a ticket for tonight’s $150m draw.
Last Thursday saw a peak in ticket sales at 4.59pm for the $110 million draw. More than 5000 tickets were purchased in just one minute.
The advice from The Lott is to avoid Thursday evening’s commute home to purchase a ticket with queues predicted at registered outlets.
“There have already been lines out the doors of some outlets and these are only going to grow as the clock ticks towards the draw close,” Ms Cooney revealed.
Tickets can be purchased at any registered outlet, online or via The Lott’s official app.
Tickets can be bought until 7.30pm AEST.
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