Math Professors Weigh in on Lottery Jackpot Odds

(KNSI) — Birthdays, anniversaries, or gut instinct, however you choose your lottery numbers, you’re facing astronomical odds for hitting tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot.

Larry Lesser is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and says people trying to game the system to get their numbers to hit are likely out of luck. “Ping pong balls have no memory of what’s happened in the past. Every number is equally likely in the future. If anyone tries to tell you that a certain number is hot or due or something like that, that’s bogus. The cold hard truth is that there is nothing you can do to increase your odds of winning a share of the jackpot.”

Those odds Lesser speaks of are one in 302,575,350, according to Syracuse math professor Steven Diaz. The odds of getting struck by lightning are one in about a million, so he says you’re 300 times more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to hit the jackpot, but there’s a chance.

The drawing is tonight at 10:00 p.m. Central. Tickets must be bought by 9:00 p.m. The cash option is over $600 million – before taxes, of course.

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