Powerball jackpot surges to record $675 million following Wednesday’s drawing

The Powerball jackpot has risen to $700 million for Saturday night’s drawing.

The odds aren’t great, but Powerball players across the country will have a shot Saturday night at a record-breaking $675 million jackpot.

Because no one won Wednesday night’s drawing, so it has rolled over and grown bigger. Although there was one “Match 5 Power Play” victor of $2 million, several “Match 5” winners of $1 million in 12 states and more than 7 million winners of other, smaller amounts, no one hit the jackpot.

The January 6 Powerball drawing results were: 02-11-47-62-63; Powerball: 17.

The estimated $675 million Powerball jackpot breaks the previous record of the Mega Millions’ $656 million jackpot won in 2012. Jackpot prizes must be claimed within 60 days after the draw to receive the cash option of an estimated $413.1 million. Players may select their own numbers using a Powerball playslip, or they may opt for computer-selected quick picks.

Powerball is played by 44 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. By comparison, your chance of being struck by lightning in a year is about one in 960,000. That means for every ticket you buy, you have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning the jackpot, or a 0.00000034% probability. In Pennsylvania, tickets are sold until 9:59 p.m. on drawing nights, Wednesday and Saturday.