ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – With the nationwide Powerball jackpot nearing $2 billion, a record level, you might be wondering what your chances of winning are. The odds are incredibly low, but it wouldn’t be the first time a winning ticket was sold in New Mexico.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and even the Virgin Islands. The first ever Powerball drawing was held over 30 years ago, on April 22, 1992.
At the time, the starting jackpot was only $2 million. Only 15 states participated, according to the Powerball website. The lottery has grown over the decades. By 2016, a $1.586 billion jackpot set a world record. Now, it has passed that previous record.
To win the jackpot, you’d need to match all five white balls plus the Powerball. And the odds of that are one in 292,201,338, according to the New Mexico Lottery.
That means you are around 200 times more likely to be killed by a meteorite hitting the region you live in than you are to win the jackpot, according to rough estimates. However, people do sometimes hit the jackpot.
In New Mexico, the jackpot has been hit five times, according to the New Mexico Lottery. Here’s the list of past New Mexico winners.
- November 2000: 14 Sandia National Laboratory employees shared $131 million
- February 2002: Isabell Delgado of Las Cruces won $32 million
- August 2005: John San Cartier, an airman from Kirtland Air Force Base, collected $93.4 million
- May 2007: Felipe Piña of Los Ojos claimed $62.8 million
- October 2008: Nine Roswell players claimed New Mexico’s largest Powerball jackpot of $206.9 million
