Powerball Prize up to $1.6B, new lottery record
Newslooks- DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)
Strong sales boosted a Powerball jackpot to an estimated $1.6 billion on Friday, making it the largest lottery prize in history.
A drawing will be held Saturday night for the Powerball prize, which hasn’t been won in more than three months. That string of 39 consecutive drawings without a winner is a reflection of the tough odds of winning a jackpot, at 1 in 292.2 million.
The advertised jackpot is the prize for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Almost all winners instead opt for the cash prize, which for Saturday night’s drawing would be an estimated $782.4 million.
The new jackpot tops the previous record prize of $1.586 billion won in 2016 by three Powerball players in California, Florida and Tennessee.
The “world’s largest lotto prize ever offered” – an estimated $1.6 billion jackpot – is now at stake in Saturday’s Powerball drawing, the multi-state game operator said Friday.
The jackpot, which has a lump-sum option of an estimated $782.4 million, “breaks the world record for the Largest National Lottery Jackpot in the Guinness World Records,” the participating California Lottery tweeted.
The Guinness World Records’ “Greatest jackpot in a national lottery” was set by Powerball in January 2016, when three tickets won a $1.586 billion jackpot.
Saturday’s drawing will take place at 10:59 p.m. ET at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. It will be the 40th Powerball drawing since the jackpot was last won August 3 in Pennsylvania, according to Powerball.
If no one wins, it will “tie the game record for the number of consecutive drawings without a grand prize winner,” the operator said.
“This Powerball game is delivering exactly what our players want,” Powerball Product Group Chair Drew Svitko said in a statement.
“We are witnessing history in the making with this $1.6 billion jackpot! What’s also exciting is that this run has already created millions of winners, including nearly 100 players who have won prizes worth $1 million or more.”
Powerball tickets are $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
