$1.4 Billion. And an Update.

          On December 11, 2015, I posted "Your Chance of Dying," which was really about how unlikely it is  that anyone will be killed in a terrorist attack, one in 700,000, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.
          Today, however, as we await tomorrow's drawing of the Powerball numbers that will be worth an estimated $1.4 billion, the largest lottery payoff in history,  the Times printed a few more statistics that are fun--and maybe illuminating.
          1.  Florida has had ten Powerball winners in the last six years, and 207 millionaires in all from Powerball drawings.
          2.  There really is a curse on lottery winners:  70% of them nationwide blow it all in five years.
          3.  Last Saturday, January 9, between six and seven o'clock, more than two and a half million tickets were sold. 
          4.  Quoting the Economist, the Times reported that you have a one in 25.4 million chance of dying from a bee sting.  A one in 74.8 million chance of being hit by an asteroid.  And a one in 292.2 million chance of winning the the Powerball jackpot. So you are four times more likely to be hit by an asteroid than to be the winner of Wednesday's Powerball jackpot.

          And yet, someone will win.  Someone will overcome those odds.

          Just for the record, I bought ten tickets on Sunday and my wife bought three more today.  That's thirteen chances and three days of fantasy before the billion dollar drawing.  Worth every nickel.