As the lottery reached a staggering amount last week, it became the topic of sundry conversations and the idea of winning occupied the thoughts of many. There were 19 consecutive Powerball drawings with no winner leading up to Wednesday, the day the winning numbers were released. Because of the increase in ticket sales, the jackpot’s value steadily increased from a mere $400 million two weeks ago to about $1.58 billion. It is estimated that Americans playing the lottery spent $2.6 billion on tickets since the last jackpot was claimed in November. In order to win, the ticket must match all five numbers (in any order) and the red Powerball number.

To win, odds of 1 in 292 million (if buying one ticket) had to be overcome. With these staggering odds come many wild-claims of things more likely than winning. Starting with the most likely and working towards least likely: dying from heart disease (1 in 3), dating a millionaire (1 in 215), writing a best-selling novel (1 in 220), being injured while using a chainsaw (1 in 4,644), injured by a toilet (1 in 10,000), winning an Oscar (11,500), killed by fireworks (1 in 616,488), winning an Olympic Gold Medal (1 in 662,00), crushed by a meteor (1 in 700,000), struck by lightning (1 in 2,300,000), dying from food poisoning (1 in 3,000,000), death from scalding hot tap water (1 in 5,000,000) killed by a tornado (1 in 5,693,092), death from using a right-handed product when you’re actually left-handed (1 in 7,000,000), becoming President of the USA (1 in 10,000,000), attacked by a shark (1 in 11,500,000), becoming an astronaut (1 in 12,100,000), becoming the Pope (1 in 20,000,000) and lastly, lowest calculated odds for predicting the march Madness bracket perfectly- 1 in 128 billion.

At 11 o’clock last Wednesday night, January 13^th, three ticketholder’s lives were changed forever. There were three magic tickets with the matching numbers splitting a world-record amount of $1.58 billion. Winning tickets were from Tennessee, California, and Florida, but only a couple from small town Munford Tennessee, home to one stoplight and a population less than 6,000, has come forward. Before going to the Tennessee lottery officials, the couple, with the suggestion of their attorney, decided to announce their win on The Today Show. However, John and Lisa Robinson’s decision to go public has been criticized by many as lottery winners are often the target of crime and it is highly suggested to stay anonymous. However, they did follow the other suggested actions by immediately hiring a lawyer and meeting with an accountant. While on the Today Show, they still had not visited the Tennessee lottery officials and therefore it was not confirmed that they won. While on the show, John Robinson had the ticket in his front shirt pocket and joked about having to be careful now because everyone knows he has it! He bought the winning ticket at a grocery store close to his house which had the winning numbers of 08, 27, 34, 04 and 19, and Powerball 10. There has actually been security footage released of him purchasing the ticket that day!

Lottery winners have two financial options when it comes to receiving their money. If the winner chooses the annuity jackpot, the state lottery invests the money in various government securities and they receive 30 payments over 29 years plus any interest earned. However, if they choose to take a cash payout, the state lottery gives him or her the entire amount with state and federal income taxes immediately taken out. The Robinson’s chose this option and when asked why, John Robinson stated, “We are not guaranteed a tomorrow” to which he received an “Amen to that!” They ended up receiving a cash payout of 528.8 million dollars. When queried about what they were planning to do with the money, they said that they did not plan on moving or getting a new house and both planned to attend work the following Monday. However, they did say that they were going to help their daughter, Tiffany, pay off student loans.

Lottery Officials are still waiting for the winning ticket holders from Chino Hills, California and Melbourne Beach, Florida. However, word got out that a nurse at a nursing home in Los Angeles had a winning ticket. This was highly reasonable seeing that her boss bought 18,000 tickets for his staff. It was a short-lived moment when they realized that it was an embarrassing prank played on her by her son. There is still no word on the winners in Florida or California.