The 11th-largest lottery jackpot in American history, $1.25 billion, will be at stake Wednesday evening after 43 consecutive drawings of the multi-state Powerball lottery without a ticket sold with all six numbers.
The jackpot is the sixth-largest in the history of the Powerball game, which began in 1992. There have been five 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.
A ticket with all six numbers hasn’t been sold since Sept. 6, when one ticket each with all six numbers was sold in Missouri and Texas when the jackpot had reached $1.787 billion, the second-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
This is the second time in Powerball history that the game has generated back-to-back billion-dollar jackpots. The other time was 2023 when a $1.08 billion jackpot was won on July 19, followed by a $1.765 billion jackpot won on Oct. 11.
Draw entry closes at 7 p.m., according to the California Lottery. The drawing is set for 7:59 p.m.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.