The chance at life-changing wealth sent millions of Americans flocking to gas stations and convenience stores in early September. That frenzy nearly doubled Powerball ticket sales from the previous week ahead of the Sept. 3 drawing. Just three days later, two players, in Missouri and Texas, split the nearly $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot. It's the second-largest prize in U.S. lottery history.

Americans spent over $103 billion on tickets in 2023, with the average player spending $321 a year. But the odds of actually winning the lottery are slim; the overall jackpot odds for a given Powerball drawing are one in almost 300 million. 

So why do people keep playing? In tough economic times, the promise of a sudden windfall becomes even more tempting. Meanwhile, changes to the game itself have made it easier for jackpots to climb into the billions, drawing in more players. The lottery is also easy to play. Powerball requires no skill, no strategy and no knowledge. It only costs a couple bucks to play and comes with enormous potential upside.

“One of the great things about the lottery is it's a very simple thing,” said Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross. “You can go into a gas station, say, here's my $2, give me a ticket, and that's all you need to know.”

Naturally, the prize itself is also a major draw. With a typical sports bet or hand of cards you might win a few hundred dollars — if you’re lucky. But a scrap of paper with a few numbers? That holds the possibility of a lifetime.

“If I put $2 down on Powerball and I end up with $1.7 billion, that is life-changing, and it's life-changing for almost anyone,” Matheson said. “So that's why we see when these jackpots get big, we have gigantic numbers of folks across every income spectrum.”

And these billion-dollar jackpots have become more common as multi-state lottery organizations have tweaked their games.

According to Matheson, Powerball and Mega Millions have been designed over the past 30 years to generate massive jackpots by raising ticket prices and shifting funds from smaller prizes.

Lottery ticket sales tend to rise in times of economic uncertainty. Several studies have found that lottery sales are sensitive to short-term economic changes. A 2017 study linked a 1% increase in an area’s unemployment rate with a 4.7% increase in lotto ticket sales.

At the height of the pandemic, South Carolina saw a 19% surge in lottery sales compared to a year prior.

However, during major recessions, like the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic, lottery sales tend to decline over time as people pull back on nonessential spending. In those periods, buying lottery tickets becomes “an easy thing for people to give up,” Matheson said.

But for those who do keep playing, the winnings are never as grand as they seem.

“We've all been conditioned by the lottery associations to treat a $1.7 billion advertised jackpot as $1.7 billion in actual potential winnings. And that's just not true at all,” Matheson said. “First of all, that's an advertised jackpot, not the actual cash value. It turns out everyone actually takes the cash rather than the annuity, and that would only be about $900 million.”

Factor in more than one winner, along with federal and state taxes? The $1.7 billion jackpot can easily turn into $300 million, Matheson said. Still life-changing money, but not exactly the billion-dollar dream.