According to experts and store owners, Americans are less interested in a $1 billion Powerball drawing than before: Only half as many people turn out to buy tickets as a few years ago.
While experienced lottery players and beginners used to rush to buy a ticket if there was a 10-digit jackpot, they have become very common.
‘It’s known as jackpot fatigue. “People are less excited about a big prize than they used to be because those big numbers are old news,” said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. The New York Post.
Tonight’s Powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $1.3 billion after another drawing failed to produce a grand prize winner on Wednesday.
It is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot and the eighth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. But store owners in New York City told the outlet that it failed to attract many non-regular ticket buyers.
Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in Powerball and Mega Millions lottery drawings
“They realize it’s going to be a billion dollars over and over again, three or four times a year, so you don’t have to come,” Gautam Das, an employee at a BP gas station in Queens, told The Post. .
“You can see the next one… So there’s no urgency and no big deal.”
He said ticket sales used to triple when the jackpot hit the $1 billion mark.
“It’s not like before, when people went crazy… They came in and lined up all the way to the station door,” he said.
Huge prizes have become increasingly common in Powerball and Mega Millions lottery drawings due to changes in the games over the years and rising ticket prices.
There have been more than 10 jackpots that have surpassed $1 billion since 2016, including four in 2023.
Last week, a lottery player won the $1.12 billion Mega Millions jackpot in New Jersey.
Lotteries are more likely to hit the $1 billion mark than they were a few years ago because the system was rejigged to create lower odds, Matheson told The Post.
A $1 increase in ticket prices and an increase in interest rates also make the annuity – as announced by lottery winnings – much higher than before.
“They’ve made winning harder, so it’s more likely to happen more times before someone wins,” he said.
“And with interest rates, you don’t have to accumulate that much to reach $1 billion.”
Only half as many people are buying tickets nationwide with prizes larger than $1 billion than in 2022, Matheson added.
There have been more than 10 jackpots that have surpassed $1 billion since 2016, including four in 2023.
People are less excited about a big prize than before because those big numbers are old news, experts said.
George Damoulakis, owner of Evers Pharmacy in Queens, told the outlet: ‘People still play, but when it went over a billion dollars… people came in droves! There was a line of people outside my door saying, “I never play, but it’s really loud. I have to, you know, I have to get in there.”
The largest jackpot in Powerball history, in November 2022, was announced at $2.04 billion.
According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.87, based on a $2 play. The odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
If there is a winner on Saturday, they can choose to receive the prize as an annuity or receive an estimated lump sum of $608.9 million.
The game involves players choosing five main numbers between 1 and 69 and a ‘Powerball number’ between 1 and 26.