2017 could end with a profitable bang for someone if they're feeling lucky. Both the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are both worth more than $300 million this week, but your odds of winning either one aren't great.
The Mega Millions jackpot crossed the $300 million mark after no one matched all six numbers in Tuesday's drawing. Powerball's jackpot currently stands at $384 million after no one won Wednesday night's drawing. People will get another chance at that jackpot on Saturday night.
The fact that both games are worth more than $300 million (which has been rare in the past) has happened more often because lottery officials have changed the rules on both games. Officials wanted to increase the time between major jackpots, and the size of the top prize by changing the numbers a player could choose from. That meant when the rules changed, so did the odds. The chances a player scores a Mega Millions ticket with all six numbers went from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million.
Powerball made a similar move back in 2015. The odds odds changed from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292 million.
That doesn't seem to stop Americans from buying lotto tickets. According to figures, they're more popular than ever with people spending more than $80 billion on them in 2016, more than what is spent on movies, video games, music, sports tickets and books combined.
Powerball is played in 44 states across the U.S.. Mega Millions is played in 44 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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