If you’ve been clutching your lucky numbers tighter as the Powerball jackpot balloons to a brain-melting $1.1 billion, you’re not alone — but don’t kid yourself into thinking the math is suddenly on your side.
At 11 p.m. EST tonight, America will be watching in anticipation as five white balls and one red Powerball are drawn from a Tallahassee, Florida, lottery machine.
Tonight is a big night because, reportedly, it’s been 41 straight drawings without a jackpot winner since players last split a staggering $1.8 billion prize back in early, sending the pot soaring to the sixth-largest Powerball jackpot in history — and sparking plenty of number-spotting superstition along the way.
“Never tell me the odds,” Han Solo once said — but here they are, whether you wanted them or not.
Crunching the data from every failed attempt since September, the Daily Mail found that patterns have emerged — at least on paper.
On the white-ball side, the outlet noted that six numbers have shown up far more than the rest: 3, 28, 29, 32, 53 and 66.
White 28, in particular, has been downright clingy, appearing in roughly one in four drawings since the last jackpot win, according to the publication.
Meanwhile, the red Powerball has its own favorites. Red numbers 1, 19 and 23 have each been drawn four times since early September — the most frequent of the bunch.
Other numbers? Not so lucky.
White balls 21, 23, 25, 35 and 63 reportedly haven’t shown their faces once during the entire 41-draw stretch. White 21 is in the deepest drought of all, last appearing July 16.
On the red side, 6, 8, 13, 17, 24 and 25 have been complete no-shows since September. Red 17 was the winning Powerball back on September 6, while red 13 hasn’t appeared since May 31 — the longest cold streak of any number.
Despite knowing all this, the outlet says the outcome of tonight’s drawing is still a toss-up.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the odds of landing the $1.1 billion jackpotremain astronomically slim: just 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
Your chances of winning any prize are far better — about 1 in 24.9.
Matching only the red Powerball pays $4 (odds: 1 in 38.32), while five white numbers without the Powerball nets $1 million (odds: 1 in 11.6 million). A $50,000 win clocks in at roughly 1 in 913,000.
For players determined to squeeze out any microscopic edge, lottery watchdog Dawn Nettles suggests ditching the Quick Pick button.
“Sit down and fill out a play slip,” she advised, warning The Daily Mail that computer-generated tickets can repeat the same combinations, shrinking the pool of unique entries.
Those repeats, she argues, mean fewer distinct combinations in circulation — potentially undercutting players chasing the jackpot dream.
Ultimately, someone’s about to be $2 richer… or $1.1 billion richer.
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