Will your lottery ticket be the one?

Southeast Idaho is known to be pretty lucky in lottery drawings, but chances of someone here winning the $550 million Powerball on Wednesday night is still slim.

David Workman is the Idaho Lottery spokesman who said earlier today southeast Idaho has had seven jackpot winners here in the past, and he thinks this is a lucky place to buy that golden ticket.

However, some skeptical statisticians are saying it is impractical from an economical and probability standpoint to play the lottery.

“Oh, you have a way better chance of getting struck by lightning,” Idaho State University Mathematics Professor Dr. DeWayne Derryberry said. “You have a way better chance of being in a tornado in Idaho than winning the lottery.”

Despite his practicality, Derryberry also said paying that two dollars for a ticket is really just a way to buy some moments of hope before the winning numbers are announced.

“But I have to say, if you buy a ticket, you get to dream about what you would do with that money for several days until the lottery happens,” Derryberry said.

Workman said there are 176 million different combinations of numbers, and despite popular belief, buying multiple tickets will not actually increase someone’s chances of winning.

“Every single ticket has the exact same odds of winning as any other ticket does,” Workman said.

Lottery players interviewed by Local News 8 all had one thing in common: holding out for that moment of hope, of anticipation, before the final numbers are called.

Locally, the sentiment wasn’t just echoed by Idahoans on Wednesday. Wistful Utahns swarmed across the state border into Malad in hopes of winning the $550 million jackpot.

Utah does not have any lottery, which means businesses in Malad usually see an influx of people when jackpots approach record highs.

Lottery fever is striking many people from Wyoming as well. The Cowboy State doesn’t have the Powerball, so many people were heading to Colorado to get in on the action.

The numbers will be drawn at 9, and we will post them on our website.