Your real chances of winning the lottery

The numbers in full

Putting the odds in perspective

The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot — 1 in 292 million — are difficult to visualise. Here are some comparisons that might help: you're approximately 250 times more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than to win Powerball. You're about 65 times more likely to be dealt a royal flush on your first five cards in poker.

The good news: someone wins every major lottery eventually. The jackpot is designed to grow until it's won, which means the prize is always going to a real person — the question is simply whether it's you.

Which lottery gives you the best odds?

Lotto 6/49 has the best jackpot odds of the major lotteries listed — 1 in roughly 14 million. That's still very long, but it's over 20 times better odds than Powerball or Mega Millions. The tradeoff is a significantly smaller jackpot ceiling.

Lotto Max offers the best combination of decent odds (1 in 33.4 million per line) and large jackpot potential — capping at $90 million CAD and then triggering Maxmillions prizes instead of growing further.

Does buying more tickets help?

In a mathematical sense, yes — each additional ticket doubles your chances relative to one ticket. In a practical sense, the improvement is marginal. Going from 1 to 10 Powerball tickets moves your odds from 1 in 292 million to 1 in 29 million. Still overwhelmingly unlikely. You'd need to buy roughly 292 million tickets to guarantee a win — at a cost of around $584 million.