Giant Powerball prize invites questions and misconceptions about the multi

The largest jackpot in USA history shot up to $1.5bn on Tuesday, driven by record sales as people flock across state lines and worldwide borders to buy tickets, a lottery executive said. A victor Saturday night would have been a record; the estimated pot for Wednesday’s drawing has blown past that.

According to USA Mega, every Powerball pool starts at million. Grayson is one of three people who won $1 million prizes by matching all but the Powerball in Saturday’s drawing. The current jackpot, and any further increases, are being displayed on the flat screen monitors in all lottery retailers, at the bottom of the Lottery’s homepage and on the agency’s Facebook and Twitter feeds.

The odds of winning the big Powerball jackpot are one in 292,201,338, much worse than the chance of getting struck by lightning.

Powerball is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The victor can take the $1.5 billion prize in annual payments over 29 years. “Everybody is entitled to it. They’re free to come over here and purchase lottery tickets”. While no one was lucky enough to take home the grand prize, there was still plenty of cash doled out. Gary Grief with the Texas Lottery, which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association, says the $1.4 billion figure is definitely the world’s largest.

The victor or winners of the $1.5 billion Powerball prize will be very wealthy but not a billionaire. The next drawing will be Wednesday night at 10:59 pm ET.

“While this amount may vary depending on which state the winning ticket is claimed in, the amount that non-U.S. citizens are taxed is very similar to that which is applied to US citizens”, according to the site.