The estimated jackpot for Monday evening’s Powerball drawing is $740 million after 35 consecutive drawings without a ticket with all six numbers being sold.
A ticket with all six numbers was last sold for the Sept. 6 drawing, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
Ticket sales close at 7 p.m. The drawing is set to be held at 7:59 p.m.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
Buying tickets at a location where tickets with large jackpots have been sold in the past will not increase a purchaser’s chance of winning a jackpot, according to USC mathematics professor Ken Alexander.
“The chance that a given place will sell a winning lottery ticket is just related to how many tickets they sell,” Alexander told City News Service.
However, players wanting a better chance of avoiding sharing the jackpot should choose numbers that aren’t selected as often, Alexander said.
Lottery players frequently choose the date of their birthdays as one of their numbers, so numbers higher than 31 would be played less, Alexander said.