Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming of winning the lottery? Maybe so, but your chances of it actually becoming a reality are slim to none. In fact, per GoBankingRates, your odds of winning the Mega Millions jacket are roughly 1 in 176 million. Not only that, but if you were to play a single state lottery, you would have odds of 1 in 42 million of actually winning. From the team at Madison Trust comes this new infographic that takes a look at the 25 biggest lottery jackpots of all time.
Your odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are so slim that, according to the CDC, you’re 30,000 times more likely to experience a bathroom injury than win it – and according to the National Weather Service, you’re 250 times more likely to suffer by being struck by lightning versus winning the lottery. According to the data on this infographic from Madison Trust, it was found that the biggest jackpot ever in the history of the United States was a Powerball win that occurred in California on November 7, 2022. It was a $2.04 billion Powerball victory by Edwin Castro, who won with odds of 1 in 292.2 million – it was the largest lottery jackpot ever, and came out to be $997.6 million after taxes were taken out.
According to the data on this infographic from Madison Trust, it shows in the history of the United States, that there were six lottery jackpot winnings of at least one billion dollars. Following the jackpot in California, a 2016 jackpot of $1.58 billion saw multiple winners across California, Florida, and Tennessee, with the jackpot resulting in an amount of $983.5 million after taxes. On multiple occasions, both the Powerball and the Mega Millions have had jackpots of more than one billion dollars, with the first of these winnings happening on January 22, 2021.
