ODDLY LIKELY
Calculator

What are your lottery odds?

Enter any lottery's rules and see the real number — next to risks you already understand.

Chance of winning the jackpot with one ticket
1 in 292,201,338

That's 0.00000034%.

What that number actually means

One ticket every week
5,619,256
years before you'd expect one jackpot
Compared with a lightning strike
19,098×
more likely to be struck in your lifetime than to win this
Tickets to reach a 50% chance
202,546,000
bought for a single draw

Everyday risks, for scale

EventRoughly
Struck by lightning in your lifetime (US)1 in 15,300
Struck by lightning in a given year (US)1 in 1,222,000
Powerball jackpot, one ticket1 in 292,201,338

Lightning figures: US National Weather Service, based on 2009–2018 averages and an 80-year lifespan. Powerball odds: powerball.com.

How the calculator works

Picking k numbers from a pool of n, where order doesn't matter, gives C(n, k) possible tickets. A bonus ball drawn from its own pool of m multiplies that:

Jackpot combinations = C(n, k) × C(m, b)
C(n, k) = n! / (k! × (n − k)!)

For Powerball: C(69,5) = 11,238,513, multiplied by 26 bonus balls = 292,201,338.

The thing worth remembering. Buying two tickets doubles your chance — from roughly one in 292 million to two in 292 million. Doubling a number that small changes nothing you'd notice.

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