Americans are less interested in a $1 billion Powerball drawing than they used to be, with only about half as many people flocking to buy tickets as they did a few years ago. While seasoned lottery players and first-timers used to rush to buy a ticket if there was a 10-digit jackpot, those jackpots have become all too common these days. It’s known as “jackpot fatigue.” People are less excited over a large prize than they used to be because those big numbers are old news. Saturday night’s Powerball jackpot had skyrocketed to an estimated $1.3 billion after yet another drawing failed to produce a grand prize winner on Wednesday. It’s the fourth largest Powerball jackpot and the eighth largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. Shop owners in New York City say ticket sales used to triple when the jackpot hit the $1 billion mark, but not any more. There have been more than 10 jackpots that have reached or surpassed $1 billion since 2016, including four in 2023. Lotteries are more likely to hit the $1 billion mark than they were a few years ago because the system was redesigned to create lower odds. A $1 hike in ticket price and a spike in interest rates also makes the annuity much higher than in the past. The largest ever Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion in November 2022. According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
