Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff Lauren bobibam here. In August two, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot hit one point three three seven billion dollars,
the second largest jackpot in the game's history. It had a lot of people stepping up to buy tickets, because even if you know for a fact that the odds of winning that jackpot are just one in three hundred two million, five hundred and seventy five thousand, three hundred and fifty, even if you know logically that you're far more likely to get eaten by a shark or elected president, buying a two dollar ticket seems like a small price
to pay for the chance to be ridiculously rich. According to calculations by the statistics nerds at, the number of people who play lotteries like Mega Millions or Powerball increases exponentially with the cash value of the act pot. In other words, the bigger the payoff, the more suckers are people play. Here's how it works today. We're going to
use Powerball as our example. Every time someone wins the Powerball jackpot, that jackpot resets to a prize of forty million dollars Apparently only die hard powerball players buy tickets when the jackpot is below a hundred million, but above that milestone, ticket sales begin to rise quickly, and the real tipping point, however, according to five thirty eight, occurs around two hundred and fifty million, when regular Joe office workers start pooling cash and ticket sales inflate to more
than two hundred million tickets per drawing. For the article this episode is based on, Has to Work, spoke with Gary Miller, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Lottery, back in twenty nineteen. The Pennsylvania Lottery is one of forty five state lotteries, along with lotteries in Washington, d C, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, that participate in the power ball game. Miller said there is definitely a sweet spot
for jackpot size when it comes to motivating players. It used to be in the two hundred million range, but now players seem to really engage when a jackpot reaches three hundred million or above. The lottery is a big business. In seen alone, Americans spent seventy one point eight billion dollars on lottery games. That's about two hundred and twenty dollars per adult American that year. But don't think for a minute that the Multi State Lottery Association, which operates Powerball,
doesn't want us to spend even more. In October of the Multi State Lottery Association announced some changes to its Powerball gaming matrix, which substantially decreased the odds of winning the Powerball Grand prize from a bit over one in a hundred and seventy five million to one in two hundred two million, two hundred and one thousand, three hundred and thirty eight. And you see, the harder it is to win the more the jackpot grows, and the more
the jackpot grows, the more people buy tickets. Miller confirmed that the odds change was made because, quote, we do know that powerball players are increasingly motivated by larger jackpots. And let's not forget another compelling reason why more lottery tickets are sold when there's a big, fat jackpot. Press
like this. Every time the Powerball or Mega Millions gets big, the press pounces on the story, and when you hear about it, you may know the odds of winning the jackpot are roughly the same as pulling your name out of a hat filled with the names of every man, woman, and child in America. But if you don't buy a ticket, your odds are infinitely worse. By the way, as of this recording, the winner of that megabillion's jackpot, who bought
the ticket somewhere in Illinois, has not stepped forward. And while that one point three three seven billion is nothing to sneeze at, the largest winning lottery to date was a one point five eight six billion dollar powerball jackpot, which was split between three winners. In Today's episode is based on the article the lottery tipping point, What size jack pot makes you play on how stuff works dot
com written by Dave Rouse. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.