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requerdanos [soylentnews.org] writes:

Move over, Y2K bug [about.com]. Wait your turn, 2038 Epoch Fail [y2038.com].

Now we have... Large Jackpot Rollover.

CBS Dallas-Ft. Worth [cbslocal.com] reports on what many have already noticed: That the Powerball lottery billboards [twimg.com] and electric point-of-sale signs [twimg.com], with only three digits in their readouts, are not equipped to display the record 1.3 Billion dollar [thelotterystation.com] jackpot estimated for Wednesday, 13 January 2016.

The problem stems from the fact that while the jackpot is 1.3 Billion with a "B", the signs were designed only to display jackpots in the millions (with an "M"). And as reported various places back as far as last July [fivethirtyeight.com], the Multi-state Lottery Association changed the Powerball matrix to decrease the odds of winning the jackpot in order to create jackpots in the billion-dollar range--just what has occurred. But instead of updating their network of advertising sign hardware in the meantime, they are just letting them show "999" to indicate amounts greater than those of which the signs can conceive.

Of course, a "1.3 Billion dollar" jackpot, in Powerball-speak, is really only a little over 800 millions dollars, and that's before taxes, because Powerball advertises their jackpot as an "annuity value"--what the jackpot would be worth over time, with interest, if invested--rather than the actual current jackpot value.

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