Powerball lottery promotes record-breaking ticket sales, vaporous hope

On Tuesday, the Powerball jackpot spiked to $1.5 billion, the biggest single-ticket prize in global lottery history, raising the hopes of countless ticket-holders waiting for tonight’s drawing. But some billboards around the country advertise the winnings as just $999 million—they’re not designed to show billions.

Since drawing for this jackpot started on Nov. 4, with a comparatively modest grand prize of $40 million, no one has picked the winning numbers. Because the payout is based on sales, the prize has grown more quickly as people rush to buy tickets. The record fortune is luring an unprecedented frenzy of purchases, with the nation spending more than $900 million in Powerball tickets between Jan. 6 and Jan. 9.

“I think I would go into a state of anxiety, but it would be a good anxiety,” said Michael Montecelo, speculating on what it would be like to win. Montecelo, a security guard in San Francisco’s financial district, spent $20 on Powerball tickets this week. “I would have to open an office and get a team of experts. I think my job would be to keep tabs on that money,” he added. “That would be a full-time job.”

Billed as “America’s Game” for almost a quarter century, the Powerball is perhaps the most popular lottery in the United States, played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Last year, the Atlantic reported that Americans spent more on lottery tickets in the 2014 fiscal year than any other form of entertainment, including books, movies, music, video games, and tickets to sporting events. Even lottery officials express some concern about players spending more than they should.

“We’re very concerned about people playing responsibly and not overspending,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “It only takes one ticket to win,” he added.

At $2 a ticket, it might seem like a small gamble. But not everyone stops at one ticket. Often, the people who can least afford it shell out the most cash playing the lottery. In the 1980s, a Duke University study reported half of all lottery tickets were purchased by the poorest third of all households.

Because America’s lowest socioeconomic strata compose the bulk of ticket buyers, some decry the lottery as exploitative. John Piper recently noted the lottery’s get-rich-quick scheme preys on the poor and is fundamentally oppressive.

“It’s a fool’s errand. … You take real money and buy with it a chance,” he wrote.

Since the Multi-State Lottery Association toughened the rules last October, the odds of matching all six numbers correctly is one in 292.2 million. A player has a better chance of becoming the next U.S. president than winning the jackpot.

“The probability [of winning] is so small, dare say impossible,” Jeffrey Mieczinokowski, an associate biostatistics professor at the University of Buffalo, told NBC. “It’s like trying to count electrons or drops of water in the ocean or grains of sand in the world. We just can’t imagine these types of things.”

If the chance of winning is so remote, why is the jackpot climbing and why are thousands of people participating?

Some say games like Powerball betray a worldview thick with despair.

“Gambling is the result of post-modern pessimism,” writes John MacArthur. “The hopelessness of practical atheism that says there’s no God, no hope, no future, no reason, no rationality, just luck.”

Like much of the transient glitz marketed today, even successful secular executives admit the astronomical jackpot likely will deliver less than it promises.

“If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people,” noted millionaire hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.