Ticket to paradise: Powerball jackpot could hit $1.3B

Published January 10, 2016 This content is archived.

Articles in USA Today, Reuters and The Washington Post about the Powerball lottery jackpot, which continues to grow and is estimated to reach $1.3 billion by the next drawing at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, interviewed Jeffrey Miecznikowski, associate professor of biostatistics, who said the chances of picking the right combination of numbers is like flipping a coin and getting heads 28 times in a row. “It’s very unlikely,” said Miecznikowski, who the article notes doesn’t play Powerball himself. He also was quoted in a story that aired on the CBS Evening News around the country, as well as in thousands of outlets around the world, including England’s Guardian newspaper, Fortune magazine, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, New Zealand’s Stuff, Huffington Post, MSN, NBC News and The Week. Locally, he was quoted in the Buffalo News, Buffalo Rising and Business First. Other local coverage includes an interview on WIVB-TV with David Hemmer, chair of the Department of Mathematics, who demonstrated on a chalkboard the odds of winning. “Fortunately the lottery doesn’t require you to have a particular order,” he said. “Whatever number you pick, whether you pick or the computer picks it, your chances are still one in 292 million.”