No winner in Monday's Powerball drawing has the next jackpot approaching $1 billion

Funny you say that. There’s about 300 million possible numbers so at $2 per ticket you only need to win over $600 million for the lottery to be plus EV. Factor in 37% tax (which is what Google says is the average rate, but may be different depending on state) you “only” need a jackpot of about 950 million to profit.

I play it. I know that the odds make me more likely to die in the time it would take me to claim the prize than to actually win, but someone has to win it and the lotteries in Europe and the UK give a lot of money to good causes.