http://www.powerball.com/pb_contact.asp
Unfortunately I am one of those people who enjoy statistics ( a sadist) and likes to figure out just how low my odds of winning actually are (doubly sadistic)
the formula for the first five would be
n!/r!(n-r)! where n is the number of balls (69) and r is the number of draws (5)
or
69!/5!(69-5)!
which is
~1.711e^98/120(~1.2688e^89) = 11,238,513
that e^98 is meant to mean "times ten to the 98th power" but adding exponents to the text didn't work so I used the shorthand. It does not mean
e where e=~2.7
Then you have those odds times the number of power balls (26)
11238513 * 26 = 292,201,338
at $2/ticket it would cost $584,402,676
A more important statistic is EV (Expected Value) which tells us what the value of a ticket really is. In the real, non-lottery, world you use this to figure out what the right price for a gamble is (or how many Powerball tickets to buy to maximize your return). Poker players use it to figure out how much to bet on a given hand.
Here's a pretty good explanation of EV as it relates to Powerball:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/d...mugs_game.html