Mega Millions, Powerball Jackpots Climb

$1.6 billion - that's the estimated jackpot for tomorrow's Mega Millions drawing.

DULUTH, Minn.-$1.6 billion – that’s the estimated jackpot for tomorrow’s Mega Millions drawing.

Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot is also climbing to more than $600 million.

Today Fox 21 spoke with a math expert on what your odds on winning actually are.

A professor at UMD said the odds of hitting the Mega Millions is about one in 300,000,000.

Mathematically he says there’s a bunch of different reasons why people shouldn’t play the lottery, but that hasn’t stopped his family from getting a ticket.

“I don’t want to sound too harsh, but the mathematics says don’t play, but there’s more to it than mathematics. So my wife and I, I think she’s bought a ticket already, the value for her, the value for us, really comes in dreaming about what we’ll do if we win,” said  Richard Buckalew, a math professor at UMD.

The Mega Millions jackpot will be the largest lottery win in U.S. history, while the Powerball jackpot will be the fifth largest ever in the U.S.