What would you do with $1.5 billion? Well, if you purchase the winning Powerball lottery ticket, you may be asking yourself this question soon.

The Powerball jackpot will be worth an estimated $1.5 billion when winning numbers are drawn tonight, the largest sum in the history of United States lotteries. It makes the $656 million Mega Millions prize in 2012 pale in comparison.

Millions of Americans have been flocking to local gas stations and convenience stores to purchase a Powerball ticket in the hope of winning an amount of money that is almost impossible to comprehend. (Even with the heavy tax on a lump-sum payment, the winner would take home more than $900 million, or the ability to spend $1 million a day, every day, for almost three years.)

Lottery officials reported that 440 million tickets were sold leading up to Saturday’s drawing, which did not produce a big winner. That’s more than $1 billion in lottery tickets sold nationwide.

At one point Tuesday night, 370,000 tickets were being sold per minute according to CBS News. To put that in perspective, that’s like the entire population of Honolulu, plus 20,000 tourists, converging on a 7-Eleven at the same time to get a ticket.

So how does one wind up with the grand prize? It’s simple: one easy payment of $2 for your winning Powerball ticket.

Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

“I bought a Powerball ticket because if it’s a one-in-a-million shot, hey, at least I’ve got a shot,” senior Billy Helenius said.

Well, it’s not exactly one in a million. The odds of winning the grand prize are actually about one in 292.2 million, essentially the equivalent of one American being picked for something from the entire population of the country.

You probably don’t want to hear that your chances of being crushed and killed by a vending machine are twice as high (one in 112 million) than winning the jackpot.

The question then becomes whether it is even worth buying a ticket with such unfavorable odds.

“If the expected value of investing two dollars on a ticket exceeds two dollars, which in this case it does, then it is worth buying a [Powerball] ticket,” explained Eugene Pettinelli, AMSA’s Advanced Placement statistics teacher.

It should be noted, however, that you should limit your purchase to a single ticket, despite the feeling that the more you have, the better your chances.

“The increase chance of winning by buying multiple tickets still leaves you with such a small chance of winning that it isn’t worth the extra money,” Ron Wassertein, executive director of the American Statistical Association, told CBS.

If you have not yet bought your ticket, don’t fret because there is still time. Sales typically are cut off about an hour before the draw, giving you until about 10 p.m. EST to buy your retirement.

An hour later, in Tallahassee, Fla., five white balls will be drawn out of a drum filled with 69 balls and one red ball will be drawn out of a drum with 26 red balls.

To win the jackpot, one must match all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball.

AMSA students who have recently turned 18 are already pondering the future if luck shines on them.  

“I’ve bought a ticket and with $1.5 billion, I would use it to fix my car,” senior Emil Adolphs said. “I’d also buy an island and create my own sovereign nation.”

With so much money, is it even worth pursuing a college education if you, an AMSA senior, suddenly become an almost-billionaire?

“I would go to college because it’s important to be educated so that I can properly make an impact on the world,” senior Arbi Kalaja said. “I plan on doing big things, so this Powerball better help me out.”

Everybody holding losing tickets can always look forward to being struck by lightning. The odds there are just one-in-700,000 in any given year.

Good luck.

Correction: This story has changed to reflect a more accurate quote from Emil Adolphs.