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Greeson: You are twice as likely to be killed by a vending machine than you are to win the next Powerball

Mervin Hanawalt, of DeKalb Co., Ala., chooses his numbers on a Powerball entry form at the Smart Mart on Highway 301 in Dade County, Ga., just north of the state line on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, atop Sand Mountain near Trenton.
Mervin Hanawalt, of DeKalb Co., Ala., chooses his numbers on a Powerball entry form at the Smart Mart on Highway 301 in Dade County, Ga., just north of the state line on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, atop Sand Mountain near Trenton. Mervin Hanawalt, of DeKalb Co., Ala., chooses his numbers on a Powerball entry form at the Smart Mart on Highway 301 in Dade County, Ga., just north of the state line on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, atop Sand Mountain near Trenton.

By Jay Greeson 4 min read

Do you have Powerball fever?

Admit it, you have caught yourself wondering what you would buy first if you won hundreds of millions of dollars. (Here’s a hint: I’d be calling Augusta National for a membership packet pretty quickly.)

The multi-state drawing has not had a jackpot winner since Nov. 7, so projections for this Wednesday’s drawing are in the $1.4 billion neighborhood, and as we all know, that’s a really nice neighborhood.

photo Jay Greeson

But, we’d advise hiring Adrian Peterson as a weekend babysitter before telling you to make firm plans on how you are going to spend your newfound billion. In truth, the cash-option payout would be about $868 million and that’s roughly the value of the Utah Jazz of the NBA.

That total, of course, is before taxes, and the federal take if there’s a winner Wednesday is north of $200 million. If you live in Tennessee and win, you won’t owe state taxes. If you live in Georgia, though, well, you may want to move north before cashing that winning ticket since it would save you an eight-figure check in state taxes.