Now that I have my numbers, just what are the odds of winning the ultimate jackpot? Well, according to a ticket sitting right in front of me, the odds of winning tonight's over half-billion dollar jackpot are 1:175,711,536. Zowee, perhaps I should have bought a few more tickets!
In other words, I have a much better chance of being struck by lightning (1:576,000), catching a ball at a major league baseball game (563:1), having a five-card flush with first five cards dealt (1:649,740), drowning in my bathtub (1:685,000), getting canonized (1:20,000,000) and even being burned to death by the ignition and subsequent melting of nightwear (1:30,589,556). And really, that last one is NOT at all likely to happen unless they consider socks “nightwear” and I only wear those in the winter!
Because I like to think optimistically, I also found a few things even less likely to happen than winning Mega Millions. I only have a one in 300,000,000 chance of dying from a shark attack. The odds are also even more skewed in my favor with that one since I no longer live on, or near an ocean. My chance of being killed on a five-mile trip made by bus is only one in 500,000,000, and the best news yet, the odds of a meteor landing on my home are only one in 182,138,880,000,000.
But it is still immensely fun to hope and dream and for the smaller prizes, I have a much better chance of winning a $2, $3, $7 or $10 prize than being possessed by Satan (1:7,000). As soon as we start talking about winning amounts of $150 and up, however, Satan has a better chance of capturing my soul than I do of winning any of the upper tier of prizes.
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