Feeling Lucky? How Lotto Odds Compare to Shark Attacks and Lightning Strikes
You're more likely to get killed by an asteroid or injured by a toilet than win the lottery.
The other winner has not come forward—yet.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot hover around 1 in 259 million, thanks to an October 2013 increase in numbers available for the lottery. Before the increase, the odds of winning the jackpot were 1 in 176 million.
To put that in perspective, the population of the United States is around 317 million people.
To understand the lottery, you need to understand odds.
Lottery jackpots grow when the numbers on the tickets people buy don't match the numbers that are drawn. When no matches occur, the jackpot increases. This particular prize grew after 20 straight drawings with no matches.
Experts say that the Mega Millions lottery has grown exponentially in size thanks to a larger pool
