Largest Powerball Jackpots in History

Tonight the lucky residents of 42 states (sadly not California) will get a shot at a $500m Powerball jackpot.  Below is a chart of all the times that the jackpot has exceeded $200m.  This has happened 28 times since 2002, about once every 134 days, or 2.7x per year.  That isn't a whole lot different than the frequency of drawdowns on the S&P 500, which, like big jackpots, create favorable buying opportunities.  Five percent drawdowns have happened about once every 163 days since March 2009.