Powerball hits second-largest jackpot ever; can you increase your chances?

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - The Powerball jackpot is up to its second-largest jackpot ever: $1.73 billion. No one has hit the jackpot since July. The odds of winning it all in the October 11 drawing are about 1 in about 292.2 million.

13 news Fact Finders asked University of Arizona associate math professor Henry Scharf if there are any way to increase your odds.

“One way to think about it is, imagine you’re gonna go and make a phone call and you’re gonna dial an 11 digit number... one for a country code and then seven digits local number, so you just type those numbers in totally randomly. So the chances of winning are about the same as someone answering and knowing your name,” said Scharf.

Yes, the odds are long. Even if you bought tickets in every possible combination to guarantee a win, you’d lose money in the end. But there may be something you can do to set your picks apart from more and more people trying to get a piece of that jackpot.

“If you want to pick numbers that really minimize your chances of having to share, you should avoid (numbers) you think other people might pick,” said Scharf. “Maybe avoid birthdates appearing in there...or one, two, three, four, five, six has probably been taken many times over...so the more random, the more chances, that you have that sole pick.”

Most winning entries are quick picks rather than players picking their own numbers.

Scientifically, there’s no such thing as a lucky number. But then, you only need them to be lucky - once.

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