Powerball jackpot soars to $900 million

The previous record for a US lottery jackpot was $656 million.

Saturday night’s Powerball draw has been raised yet again to reach the staggering amount of an estimated $900 million.

The jackpot can be paid out annually over the next 29 years or a cash lump sum prize of $496 million. But don’t spend it all in your head just yet.

“Today would have been my dad’s 84th birthday and he played the lottery twice a week for like 20 years”, said Scott Deil, who waited for three hours in line to get his lottery tickets.

Columbus State University statistics professor Madhusdan Bhandary said a person’s chance to win the Powerball is very low.

For the full interview with Mahoney, click on the video player at the top of the page.

Should nobody win that drawing, the next jackpot to be drawn next Wednesday is expected to be well over $1 billion. Check back with CBS New York for the winning numbers. Powerball is played in 44 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Previously, many had to wait to collect their prizes due to the state’s budget impasse.

This might be tough to swallow, but you’re probably not going to win Saturday night’s Powerball.

The Powerball jackpot is at a record high.

“I went random after Googling all day the best way to play and I found out it doesn’t make much of a difference, so if you don’t have numbers chosen, it’s good to do a Quick Pick”, customer Janet Cruz said. With ticket sales doubling previous records, the odds are growin…

The cash value of the prize is $558 million before taxes, according to powerball.com and winners have 180 days from the drawing to claim their prize. Almost impossible odds aren’t stopping people from lining up to buy tickets, everyone’s dreaming of an $800 million Powerball payoff at Elite Liquors in northwest Fresno.

The jackpot for the twice-weekly game started at $40 million on November 4 and has been growing ever since.

The odds are one in 292.2 million, which means you’re really, really, really unlikely to win. “We’ve never seen jackpots like this”. So at $2 a ticket, the money these lottery retailers are taking in have them stepping up security.