Powerball Lottery: 5 Things To Know About Tonight’s $1.5 Billion Drawing

A customer buys Powerball tickets at Kavanagh Liquors on January 12, 2015 in San Lorenzo, California.

– State records showed that $22 million was spent alone on tickets in Manhattan since the last Powerball winning drawing in early November – the most of any county in NY.

If no one matches all the Powerball numbers Wednesday night, the prize will surge past $2 billion for the drawing on Saturday, officials told NBC News. The odds of matching all six numbers are 1 in 292.2 million.

The cash option for the winning jackpot is $930 million before taxes.

Officials increased the jackpot Monday from the initial estimate of $1.3 billion because of strong sales.

The drawing for the Powerball will take place Wednesday night at 9:59 p.m. CST. The more chances you have at buying more than one ticket, the more chances you have at winning. And if you feel like your gambling is getting out of control, there is a 1-800 number on the back of every lottery ticket you can call for help. Powerball advertises the jackpot as $1.5 billion, but the prize is only worth that much when it’s paid out over 30 years.

Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Peurto Rico. The Powerball website states “you do not have to be a citizen or a resident to play the game”. The lottery funds the Foundation School Fund. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $18 billion, which supports public education in Texas.

In February 1992, an Australian consortium tried to corner a $24 million Virginia Lotto jackpot, but the group was only able to purchase 2.4 million of the 7 million combinations before time ran out. A jackpot this large has never happened before, and it’s causing people who don’t normally play the lotto to buy tickets.