This concept of playing numbers and hoping to become a multi-millionaire escapes me.  At the height of ticket sales for this most recent Powerball jackpot there were 130,000 tickets being sold every minute.  A lottery frenzy one might say.  The idea of “you have to be in it, to win it” is actually quite deceiving.  Truth be told, a person not playing the Powerball lottery has almost as much of a chance of winning, as a person who bought hundreds of dollars worth of tickets.  The odds of sharing the wealth in last night’s lottery was 1 in 175 million.  The odds of being struck by lightning in an average lifespan is 1 in 10 thousand.  Despite the number of people buying tickets, the odds of someone winning doesn’t increase accordingly.  In fact, nine drawings passed without anyone winning.  Each drawing is an independent event.  Winning Powerball, is as close to impossible statistically, as almost any other single act on earth.  One would be far better off going to a casino and learning how to play craps.  The odds of the dice are true and the house has only a small advantage on many of the bets.  However, in craps, there are also bets known as “sucker bets” because the odds of winning are so against you.  The Powerball lottery makes those “sucker bets” seem like a “sure thing”.  This lottery could, in reality, go on for months or years without anyone winning.  Therefore, one could conclude, that at some point, an anonymous winning ticket will win.  The numbers will match numbers purchased somewhere in the participating states.  Last night, there were two winners, one from Arizona and one from Missouri.  In addition, 8,924,123 winners won smaller prizes.