The $189 million Powerball winner in Orlando Saturday? The odds were in our favor in Florida.
Florida is No. 1 among the 30 participating states (and the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands) for Powerball sales, selling about 15 percent of all tickets, said Chuck Strutt of the Multi-State Lottery Association.
'It's just a statistical likelihood that the state would have more winners,' he says.
He didn't have a figure for ticket sales, but by my math: with about $3.25 billion in sales a year, that means we sell more than $9 million a week in tickets.
Of those sales, 40 percent goes to state education, 10 percent goes to retailers' sales commissions, vendors and operational expenses, and 50 percent is paid back out in prizes.
While Saturday's jackpot winner was the first since Florida added Powerball in January, we've already had 13 $1 million winners. Those are players who have picked five of five numbers but not the Powerball. But they did pick the Power Play option -- which makes for an automatic $1 million."