No winner for historic Powerball Jackpot

Those were the winning numbers in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing, which carried the largest-ever USA lottery jackpot by far, at $949.8 million.

The $1.3 billion prize would be the world’s richest grand prize that could go to a single ticket, Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief said.

California normally sees Powerball sales of US$1 million a day, but on Saturday morning sales were US$2.8 million an hour, said California Lottery spokesman Mike Bond.

The lottery billboard on I-69 at Illinois Road displayed 999 million for Wednesday Powerball jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot before this point was a $590.5 million prize won in the drawing on May 18, 2013, by a Florida woman, according to lottery officials.

The chances of winning the Powerball jackpot prize remains one in 292,201,338, according to the Powerball website.

New Jersey Lottery spokeswoman Judy Drucker said for Saturday’s drawing almost 75 percent of the possible combinations were selected nationwide.

The jackpot has been rolling over since November 4 when it started at $40 million. Lottery officials say four people in the state won $150,000 and five others won $50,000 in Saturday’s drawing.

The Powerball is operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association, a group of 34 state lotteries as well as lotteries in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Despite the slim odds of winning, Powerball is generating frenzied sales of the $2 tickets for the Wednesday drawing. All tickets sold list the jackpot as $1,300 million, which is technically correct. 292 million to one.

In the United States, small-prize scratch lottery cards are popular, while two prizes – Mega Millions and Powerball – offer eye-popping payouts. No one won matched all six numbers, so the jackpot soared to $1.3 billion.

In this photo made with a fisheye lens a clerk hands a patron his $10 worth of chances for the upcoming Powerball drawing on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Cranberry Township, Pa. The Powerball jackpot has reached a record $900 m…

That in turn has persuaded some Americans who normally shun lotteries to join the long lines of people buying tickets at retail stores across the country.

“Everyone knows you can’t win, if you don’t play”, James Smallwood told the Daily News at the Fordham Grocery and Convenience store in the Bronx.

In the drawing on Wednesday night, the jackpot stood at US$500 million and with no victor drawn, the stage was set for the latest drawing just before 11pm Eastern time on Saturday.

The victor can choose annual payments over 29 years, or a lump sum cash payment of $806 million.

The North Carolina says this kind of jackpot is new territory.