Wednesday’s Powerball Set With $400 Million Jackpot. Why Do We Play So Much?

Saturday's winning numbers of 21, 24, 36, 42, 45, and the Powerball of 15 did not create the country's latest millionaire and therefore the jackpot will rise for Wednesday, August 7th's drawing. 

At the time of this post, the potential jackpot is $400 million. Will it be enough to get the casual player out to buy several tickets? Remember the record jackpot of $590 million? That brought many, many people with dreams of paying all their bills off and living comfortably out to buy tickets, including me. That jackpot was unfortunately won by an 84-year-old woman in Florida (go figure).

Are the odd in your favor? Not really. The odds of getting all five numbers and the Powerball correct are 1 in 175.2 million.

With that said, why is playing the lottery so addictive?

According to recent research from Nautilus, human brains didn't evolve to calculate odds such as 1 in 175.2 million. This is also the reason why people are more superstitious about their numbers, how they play, etc.

The idea of winning activates the "motivation" part of the brain which causes a person to buy more and more tickets. Which explains why so many people buy several tickets at a time when games like Powerball reach a huge amount in the jackpot as Wednesday's will be.

In any case. Good luck and don't over spend on tickets. Remember, the odds of winning the total jackpot are 1 in 175.2 million.