Shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday night, some lucky Powerball player might receive a life-changing windfall of cash. I don’t need to nag about how unlikely that lucky player is going to be you.
Still, it’s human nature to be optimistic, so I’ve been playing the Powerball nonstop. Since I don’t have the cash to fund a lavish gambling habit, I’ve found five different simulators that allow me to play the odds. I’ve spent around $100,000 of fake money, and barely made more than an imaginary four grand in return. Somebody’s got to (pretend)win, but so far it hasn’t been me.
Want to try your luck while keeping your wallet secure? Here are five different ways to play the lottery thousands of times without losing a (real) cent.
The L.A. Times’ Powerball Game
Pick your lucky numbers or select “Quick Pick” and see how far $100 takes you. The Times’ simulator keeps a running tally of how much you’ve already spent, and even allows you to “bet your paycheck” on the game. I bet my yearly salary and still haven’t won big.
Adam Lamer’s Lottery Simulator
Developer Adam Lamer built this lottery simulator to determine just how long it would take “a person of [his] luck” to win the Powerball. I’ve been playing his simulator continuously for 40 years and even though I’ve spent $40,000, I’ve only won $4,000. That neat number leads me to believe that my real odds would be even worse than the ones in this game.
Powerball Simulator
Similar to Lamer’s model, this simulator shows you hundreds of millions of ways you can lose over an infinite amount of time. I like how it gives the ability to show your losing drawings in slow, fast, or maximum speed so you can throw away your pretend dollars more quickly.
The Amazing Powerball Simulator
“Marvel as you maintain false hope!” this simulator from blogger “Quaap” sarcastically promises. Well I’ll have it know that I’ve won an entire $7 (in theory) while only spending a couple hundred, so there.
Desktop Powerball Lottery Simulator
More of a hands-on person? This open source simulator program is written in Python and available to download from GitHub, so you can make your own Powerball program to run continuously on your computer desktop. Think of all the times you’ll lose!
Did you win big on any of these simulators?
