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What are the odds
of ...?
By Jay
MacDonald • Bankrate.com
 Have
you ever read the odds-of-winning disclaimer on the back of that
lottery ticket you buy every week? Neither have we.
Besides, who cares? Someone has to win and you could
be the 1-in-80 million winner. Or maybe not.
"Suppose you have one friend in Canada. If you
put the names of everyone in Canada in a hat and draw one name at
random, you are 2.5 times more likely to draw your friend's name
than you are to win the Big Game," according to Cal State-Hayward
statistics professor Michael Orkin.
If you find the chances of Powerball success too depressing,
check out these other odds, culled from National Weather Service
data and Les Krantz's 1992 book What
the Odds Are: The A to Z Odds on Everything You Hoped or Feared
Could Happen:
- Odds of drowning in your bathtub: 1 in 685,000
- Odds of being struck by lightning this year: 1
in 240,000
- Odds that the pilot of your airliner is a convicted
drunk driver: 1 in 117
- Odds that you'll be injured on the job: 1 in 24,000
- Odds of hitting a hole-in-one: 1 in 15,000
- Odds of giving birth to a genius: 1 in 250
- Odds of being audited by the IRS: 1 in 100
- Odds that your next car ride will be your last:
1 in 4 million
Whatever you wager, always remember this odds-on favorite:
Live every day as if it were your last and then someday you'll be
right.
Jay MacDonald is a contributing
editor based in Mississippi.
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