Why weary lottery players no longer care about a billion dollar jackpot - as Powerball prize skyrockets to $1.3 billion

Americans are less interested in a $1 billion Powerball drawing than they used to be - with only about half as many people flocking to buy tickets as they did a few years ago - according to experts and shop owners. 

While seasoned lottery players and first-timers used to rush to buy a ticket if there was a 10-digit jackpot, they have become all too common. 

'It's known as jackpot fatigue. People are less excited over a large prize than they used to be because those big numbers are old news,' Victor Matheson, professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, told The New York Post.

Tonight's Powerball jackpot has skyrocketed to an estimated $1.3 billion after yet another drawing failed to produce a grand prize winner on Wednesday. 

It is the fourth largest Powerball jackpot, and the eighth largest jackpot in US lottery history. But shop owners in New York City told the outlet it has failed to lure many non-regular ticket buyers.

Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery drawings

'They realize it'll be a billion dollars over and over and over, three or four times a year, so you don't have to come,' said Gautam Das, a clerk at a BP Gas station in Queens, told The Post.

'You can catch the next one… So no urgency, and no big deal.'

He said that ticket sales used to triple when the jackpot hit the $1 billion mark. 

'It's not like before when people used to go crazy… They would come in and line up all the way out the station door,' he said. 

Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery drawings due to changes to the games over the years and more expensive ticket prices. 

There have been more than 10 jackpots which have surpassed $1 billion since 2016 - including four in 2023. 

Last week, a lottery player struck the $1.12 billion Mega Millions jackpot in New Jersey.

Lotteries are more likely to hit the $1 billion mark than they were a few years ago because the system was rejiggered to create lower odds, Matheson told The Post.

A $1 hike in ticket prices and a spike in interest rates also makes the annuity - the winnings lotteries advertise - much higher than previously. 

'They’ve made it harder to win, so it's more likely to roll over more times before someone wins,' he said. 

'And with interest rates, you don't need to accumulate as much to reach $1 billion.'

Only half the number of people are buying tickets nationally for $1 billion jackpots than they were in 2022, Matheson added.

There have been more than 10 jackpots which have surpassed $1 billion since 2016 - including four in 2023

People are less excited over a large prize than they used to be because those big numbers are old news, experts said

George Damoulakis, owner of Evers Pharmacy in Queens, told the outlet: 'People still play but when it was over a billion dollars… people came in droves! There was a line of people out my door saying, "I never play but it’s so high. I got to, you know, I got to get in there."'

The largest ever Powerball jackpot, in November 2022, was advertised as $2.04 billion. 

According to Powerball, the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.87, based on a $2 play. The odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 292,201,338. 

If there is a winner on Saturday, they can choose to take the prize as an annuity, or take an estimated $608.9 million lump sum. 

The game involves players picking five main numbers between 1 and 69 and one 'Powerball number' between 1 and 26.