Luckier than lightning: Powerball trio strikes it rich with $448 million jackpot

(CNN) — The odds of getting hit by lightning in any given year are about one in 500,000. You are about 350 times LESS likely to win the Powerball lottery.

Wham!! Wham!! Wham!! The lottery struck at least three lucky victims at the same time Wednesday night with a total jackpot of $448 million, Powerball said on its website.

Two are in New Jersey and one is in Minnesota, but there could still be additional winners in other states.

The winners each have a ticket in their pockets, purses or sock drawers with the winning numbers: 5, 25, 30, 58, 59 …. and Powerball number 32.

The odds of cracking one that big?

Who knows and who cares, when you’re splitting the equivalent of about the net worth of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, according to Forbes magazine?

What are the odds of winning?

Could there be a $1 billion jackpot?

Why you keep playing the lottery

The size of U.S. lottery jackpots are growing, with almost no end in sight.

“You could see maybe in the next several years … an elusive billion-dollar jackpot,” said Victor Matheson, economics professor at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

Had no one won Wednesday evening, the prize would have swollen to an estimated $600 million for Saturday’s drawing, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. With the winning tickets, the jackpot falls to $40 million.

That’s not far from the all-time largest U.S. jackpot of $656 million in the Mega Millionsgame in March 2012. That was split among three tickets sold in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.

Powerball is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A single ticket costs $2.

With their payout, the winners could buy fleet of high-speed Bugatti Veyrons each to speed off to a life in the sun, far away from all those friends — they never knew that had — asking for a loan.