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.