In the US, a jackpot of more than a billion dollars is up for grabs in the Mega Millions lottery

1,350,000,000 dollars or 1.2 billion euros. That is indeed the staggering amount of the next US lottery jackpot to be played next week, no one has won this amount in the drawing on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. A staggering amount and yet far from unusual across the Atlantic where the jackpots regularly exceeds one billion dollars, as reported by BFMTV on Wednesday, January 11th.

It is not the first time that the potential jackpot has reached ten figures in the United States. In November, one person had already won $2.04 billion (more than €1.8 billion) in the Powerball lottery. And at the end of August, another player had already won more than 1.3 billion dollars or more than 1.2 billion euros.

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Americans love gambling

These staggering amounts can be explained by three reasons. First of all, the United States is the most populous developed country in the world with more than 337 million inhabitants. Another reason has to do with the “gaming” nature of Americans, who spend an average of more than $1,000 each a year on lottery tickets, according to figures cited by the CNBC television network in 2019. And finally, a final reason that may can be summed up by the maxim “money attracts money”. The amounts involved are such that random players decide to try their luck and buy a ticket, thereby inflating the amounts to be won.

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