The eighth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history — $1.3 billion — will be at stake in Saturday evening’s multi-state Powerball drawing.
There have been 40 drawings since Jan. 1, the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
Saturday’s drawing will take place at 7:59 p.m. Tickets sold after 7:05 p.m. are ineligible for that night’s draw, but are eligible for the following drawing.
In its announcement Friday that the estimated jackpot had grown to $1.3 billion from the previous estimate of $1.23 billion because of strong ticket sales across the nation coupled with a boost in interest rates used to fund the annuitized prize, the Multi-State Lottery Association also sought to debunk what it called top misconceptions about whether players can gain an edge to winning the Powerball jackpot.
One misconception is that Powerball jackpot-winning tickets are only sold in big cities and states. Powerball was designed to be a random game with every ticket having the same possibility of matching the winning numbers drawn, the association said.
The number of winning tickets in a location directly correlates to the volume of ticket sales. Typically, there are more winning tickets in cities because they have higher ticket sales compared to rural areas, and therefore, more winners based upon sales volume.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number are 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
The jackpot for Saturday’s drawing is the fourth-largest in the history of the Powerball game which began in 1992. There have been four larger jackpots for the Mega Millions game, which began in 1996 as The Big Game and was given the new name Mega Millions in 2002.
The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.