[imagesource: Pexels / Erik Mclean]

The point of buying a lottery ticket, other than hoping to strike it lucky with your infinitesimally small chances of winning, is that it allows you to dream.

Our current South African lotteries have rolled over a few times and are looking rather hefty. The PowerBall is at R92 million and the PowerBall Plus at R68 million, while the Lotto is at R61 million.

Those numbers dwarf in comparison to the current American Powerball (lower case ‘b’) jackpot of – wait for it – $1,9 billion, or roughly R34,3 billion.

Unlike our lotteries, you won’t receive that full amount tax-free and there’s also a deduction if you choose to take a one-time lump sum payment as opposed to having it spread out over time.

Either way, you’re winning enough that you and anybody you care for never have to work again.

The next draw will be Monday night US time, or Tuesday morning our time, reports The Guardian:

The new $1.9bn (£1.67bn) jackpot is for a winner who is paid through an annuity over 29 years. Winners of lottery jackpots usually prefer a lump sum of cash, which for Monday’s drawing would be $929.1m (£816.61m).

The Powerball prize keeps getting more massive because of the inability of anyone to overcome the long odds of 1 in 292.2 million and win the jackpot.

In other words, that $1,9 billion is a nice headline figure but in reality the jackpot for the Powerball drawing is $929 million, or roughly R16,75 billion.

In order to win, you need to match all five white balls as well as the red Powerball. Fun fact – you have better chances of being struck by lightning or having quadruplets

Still keen to buy a ticket? Of course, because we do so in order to dream of leaving all of life’s worries behind, not because the maths makes sense.

We are in no way affiliated with Lottoland but the site does offer South Africans the chance to buy tickets for the US Powerball (here).

There is one major catch – Lottoland’s terms and conditions indicate a maximum payout for customers of R500 million, irrespective of the size of the win.

There’s also an explainer video which spells out how to do so:

Good luck to anybody who dabbles.

Don’t forget who told you about the draw in the first place.

[source:guardian]