No Powerball winner, so jackpot up to $1.3 billion

With Powerball’s jackpot now at UA$1.3 billion and likely to surge higher by Wednesday’s drawing, the US multi-state lottery is offering the world’s richest grand prize that could go to a single ticketholder, officials said on Sunday. There were several smaller winners in the Saturday drawing who took home $1 million and $2 million prizes, but no one matched all six numbers. That’s because they expected about 75 percent of the possible number combinations would be bought in time for last night’s drawing.

It is the largest lottery prize ever offered in North America and is the first time that a US lottery prize has topped the $1 billion mark. To win, punters must guess all six numbers correctly, including the Powerball as the sixth number.

In the Powerball game, five white balls are drawn from a drum containing 69 balls.

Powerball is played right across the U.S. in 44 states, Washington and two USA territories.

Grocery store and gas station managers expect their buildings to be flooded with people buying tickets.

Also Saturday in New Jersey, $13.3 million in Powerball tickets had been sold by 5 p.m.at 7,500 lottery locations, said Judy Drucker, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Lottery.

Scott Norris, an assistant professor of mathematics at Southern Methodist University, says your tiny odds improve a bit if you let the computer pick your numbers rather than choosing them yourself.

In addition, there were three tickets that were purchased with the Powerplay option multiplying their $1 million to $2 million.

CHICAGO, IL- With unprecedented growth, the Powerball jackpot now stands at $800 million for Saturday night’s drawing.

Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery and president of the multistate Powerball Lottery, says officials tallied $352 million in ticket sales on Friday. The winning numbers: 32-16-19-57-34 Powerball 13.

The previous biggest British national lottery jackpot was £22.6 million more than 20 years ago. He’ll take a break if he wins.

With all those lesser prizes added to the mix, buyers of 39 million tickets have won $349 million in prize money since November.