Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot $1.5 billion

These pools mostly are informal affairs, where a trusted employee agrees to collect a couple bucks from participants, heads to a retail lottery outlet, buys tickets and watches the drawing.

The 19th Powerball drawing since the most recent jackpot victor in early November.

Lottery officials initially estimated the jackpot would be $1.3 Billion, but with sales continuing to grow, officials raised the estimated jackpot to $1.4 Billion on Monday.

That’s $868 million before taxes if the victor decides on a one-time check instead of a 30-year annuity.

And if you do win that jackpot in the state of Montana, you would actually walk away with $930 million. In addition to Leach’s jackpot, four players won the game’s $1 million prize a year ago.

“You do not have to be a citizen or a resident to play the game”, according to the Powerball website. The folks at Montana lottery say in Montana alone, an average of $1000 worth of Powerball tickets are being sold every minute.

For the next seven drawings, less than 10 percent of the possible combinations were played as the jackpot increased from $127 million to $255 million. The women claimed they all went in together on tickets.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338 while the odds of winning any prize are 1:24.9. Because it allows you to get your finances in order, Chopin says. For the last “Powerball” number, choose any number from 1 to 26. By making it harder to win a jackpot, the tougher odds made the ever-larger prizes inevitable.

Matt Bailey, associate professor at the Bucknell University School of Management, said in a Tuesday press release: “Under the new odds, you are roughly 1.7 times less likely to win than under the old system”. In Florida, for example, ticket sales were $654 million in 2012-13, then $459 million in 2013-14, then $375 million in 2014-15.

Smaller prizes are awarded in lump sums. Those numbers are typically between 1 and 31, since they represent dates like birthdays and anniversaries.

The United States’ federal government treats a jackpot as income, and can withhold 25 per cent of winnings as income tax for citizens with correct taxpayer ID numbers.

Roberts believes if he wins the money, it’s enough to take care of all his family and friends.

“I stopped playing when the price of the tickets went up to $2, but this one is high”, Riley said as she picked up her two Quick Picks.