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Would you rather win a casino jackpot or the Powerball? I know, I know, Both!
The odds are significantly better for one over the other.
We live in a world of statistical probability. Someone has done the math on just about everything, even winning Powerball or a casino jackpot.
The Numbers Behind Everyday Life
About 1 in 10 Americans will eat pizza today. Your odds of being attacked by a bear are one in 2.1 million. Odds of winning Masters tickets in the lottery are about 1 in 180.
Odds of eating pizza at the Masters while being attacked by a bear is something they haven’t figured out yet. Give it time. I’ll settle for the Masters tickets.
An 80-year-old person has a one in 15,300 chance to have been hit by lightning in their life. We have a one in 366 chance to be in a car crash for every 1,000 miles we drive.
That’s concerning.
Divorce? Sad to say, it happens in two out of five marriages these days. And did you know that one in 10 marriages worldwide are between first or second cousins?
That’s uh, also concerning.
One in six of us in America are going to get summoned for jury duty this year, but only one in 25 of us get to serve on a jury. Maybe ‘get to serve’ is the wrong phrase.
The Odds of Winning Powerball
Mathematicians have solved some of the other greatest gaming odds mysteries.
The odds of winning Powerball or Mega Millions are roughly 1 in 291,000,000.
That makes sense because we have 342,600,000 Americans, and there is one winner just about every time.
What About a Casino Jackpot?
For a casino jackpot, odds vary. Don’t get me started on RTP rates on online slots, because I can talk about them for a long time, but basically, casinos build in an edge (they’re going to win) into each game they house.
That’s why European roulette wheels have 37 spots, but if you hit a single number you win on 35 to 1 odds.
On slots, the higher return-to-player rate, the more probable (stress: probable) it is that you’re going to win some money.
My rule of thumb is look for anything with an RTP of 96 percent or better.
Winning a slot jackpot? That also depends on multiple factors, including the RTP rate at that game (also the same games have different rates at different casinos in our Online Casino Power Rankings).
Roughly the odds of winning a casino jackpot are 1 in 50,000,000.
That’s much more likely than winning Powerball.
More Wild Statistics Worth Knowing
I was shocked to discover that your house and my house have a one in 2,500 chance of being hit by a tornado.
Why? My house was nicked by a tornado back in 2020, but we were spared any serious damage.
Odds of being hit by a meteor are one in 1.6 million, which sounds kind of scary. Every 1 in two million people are over 7-feet tall.
Your odds of being in a rock band are one in a million, literally, but I’m sure it helps to play an instrument or be able to sing.
One Last Long Shot
Speaking of playing, the odds of being an American-born Major League Baseball player are 1 in 439,230.
That’s what happens if you take the population of America and divide it by the 780 current MLB players.
439,230 is roughly the population of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is near several great tribal casinos.
And sure enough, current Toronto Blue Jays reliever Louis Varland is the only MLB player from St. Paul, Minnesota (Minneapolis’ sister city). Varland is sporting a nifty 0.29 ERA this season in 31 innings.
He’s also the only player currently in MLB with that ERA. What are the odds of that?
