$700 million now; Powerball jackpot keeps rising

Powerball is taking attention away from Mega Millions, which features a rather impressive $165 million jackpot for Friday night’s drawing.

The odds of winning the record $700 million jackpot in Saturday night’s drawing are 1 in 292 million. Powerball’s largest jackpot was more than $590 million in May 2013. Forty-four states (plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) take part in the game. “So, large counties like Mecklenburg, Wake County, Guilford would get a larger share based on the fact that those three counties make up 25% of the state population”. The record US jackpot is $656 million. “Your odds of winning remain the same, regardless of how many tickets are purchased or how many people play”.

The Powerball jackpot has soared to uncharted territory for Saturday’s drawing with an estimated $700 million jackpot, the largest in USA history. And an even bigger prize. The man from Baghdad showed up with a paper to claim his winnings-a ticket he didn’t even buy in the U.S. “It’s neat to see what other people’s values are and what they would do with the money”.

Each Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59pm (0359 GMT), the lottery company draws five white balls out of a drum containing 69 balls, and a red one out of a drum with 26.

In that scenario, the jackpot victor will get a small slice of the $428.4 million up front. The victor will receive 30 annual payments of approximately $23.3 million each, with the first payment made shortly after the ticket is validated.

No one won yesterday’s 500 million dollar Powerball jackpot… but a dozen people around the country won the next best prize.

For some comparison, the chance of being struck by lightning in a year is about one in 960,000. Fourteen of the 15 people netted $1 million, and one person won $2 million as they paid an extra $1 on their ticket.

A Power Play purchase increases all non-jackpot prizes by 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x.

Although the odds of winning the Powerball are slim, some East Texans are keeping hope alive.

“We are at the highest jackpot amount in USA history, and who knows where it could go from here?” said Maura McCann of the New Hampshire Lottery.

“Be careful about that kind of thing because the odds are astronomical, but hey, you might hit”, McNay said.