How to Win $1.8 Billion: Buy Every Ticket

A deep dive into how the world’s biggest lottery quietly became an advantage play.

It sounds crazy — but mathematically, it checks out. When the Powerball jackpot climbed to $1.787 billion, the idea of buying every ticket stopped being absurd and started looking like a solvable equation.

How Powerball Works

Each ticket costs $2. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 69 and one Powerball number from 1 to 26 — a total of 292 million possible combinations. The odds of hitting the jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.

Normally, every $2 bet returns about 28 cents in small prizes. The lottery keeps the rest. But no wonder people say the lottery is a tax on people who can’t do arithmetic. We can.

Once jackpots pass a billion dollars, the math flips. At $1.8 billion, the expected value of a $2 ticket rises to roughly $6.4 before taxes*, driven almost entirely by the jackpot component. Buying every combination becomes profitable.

---

Why It Works

Buy all 292 million combinations for $584 million, and you’re guaranteed the $1.787 billion jackpot.

Winners choose between two payout options:

Annuity (30 years): After federal taxes, around $1 billion remains. Subtract $584 million for tickets and add $94 million in smaller prizes — net profit ≈ $510 million.

Lump-sum cash option: Around $900 million before tax; after federal and state taxes (~37 %), you keep $550–600 million. Subtract $584 million for tickets and add $94 million in small prizes — net profit ≈ $60–110 million, depending on the state.

Even the lump sum leaves you ahead — and you don’t have to wait 30 years.