The recent and most talked about gossip in the United States the past few weeks has no doubt been circulating around the Powerball lottery. The Powerball jackpot went from $900 million the first round to $1.6 billion after no winner was announced during the previous drawing. As of Wednesday evening, three winners were chosen to receive the cash prize. While their identities are still unknown, they can each choose to receive their payments annually spread over decades or a smaller amount in a lump sum. The three winners bought their tickets from three different states; Tennessee, California and Florida. The Tennessee ticket was sold in Munford, north of Memphis. The California ticket was sold in Los Angeles at a 7-Eleven store. Finally, the third ticket was sold at a Florida Publix in Melbourne Beach.
The winners beat odds of 1 in 292.2 million to get the numbers drawn during the second Powerball drawing. The numbers were as follows, 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10. They may be considered some of the luckiest people on the planet. Here are 15 things that are more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery:
1.Being mauled by a bear while visiting Yellowstone National Park (1 in 2.1 million)
2. Being killed by a dog (1 in 18 million)
3. Being the victim of a shark attack (1 in 11.5 million)
4. Dying in an elevator (1 in 10.4 million)
5. Being killed in a terrorist attack (1 in 20 million)
6. Becoming the President of the United States (1 in 10 million)
7. Becoming a movie star (1 in 1.5 million)
8. Being crushed and killed by a vending machine (1 in 112 million)
9. Getting struck by lightning (1 in 1 million)
9. Dying from being left-handed and incorrectly using a right-handed product (1 in 4.4 million)
10. Becoming an astronaut (1 in 12.1 million)
11. Becoming a pro athlete (1 in 22,000)
12. Being murdered (1 in 18,000)
13. Winning an Olympic gold medal (1 in 662,000)
14. Having a 190+ IQ (1 in 107 million)
Although some of these cases are rather depressing odds to think about, these are just a few examples of what can more likely happen to you than winning the lottery. Maybe this will help persuade some of you who bought those lotto tickets thinking you had a chance to instead take a chance on something somewhat more feasible to obtain, say, become an Olympic gold medalist or a genius. But for now, we can only hope to be as lucky as the three winners. To the winners: don’t take that $1.6 billion for granted.
