At the California-Nevada state line, hundreds of people line up by the hour to take on the odds for their chance to win the $800 million Powerball jackpot drawing this Saturday.
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Until now, the largest Powerball jackpot was $590 million rom May of 2013; of course, the actual winnings would have been significantly lower than that after Uncle Sam took his share.
The estimated prize for Saturday night’s Powerball drawing soared again on Saturday morning, hitting $900 million, the largest jackpot of any lottery game in US history.
By comparison, about 6.3 million tickets were sold for Wednesday night’s drawing when the jackpot was $500 million.
If one person matches all six numbers, they would have the option to take home a lump sum of $558 million, lottery officials said. But as lottery officials often note, you have no chance of winning if you don’t buy a ticket.
For the full interview with Mahoney, click on the video player at the top of the page. If no one wins Saturday, the prize will likely surpass 1 billion, according to officials.
The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:58 p.m. EST Saturday. The game is available to be played in most American states – a single ticket costs two USA dollars.
Sadly, the odds of winning tonight’s Powerball are not good.
But if no one claims this prize, ticket-buyers said they would be back for the next one.
Head over to the USA Mega Jackpot Analysis site for a breakdown of every states’ tax rules in relation to the Powerball. It was just three years ago that the Hill family of Dearborn bought a ticket at the convenience store and cashed in for $293 million. For players who are only drawn in with extreme jackpots, Lustig has one tip.
And that’s not just because the odds of winning are 292 million to one. “We’ve never seen jackpots like this”.
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The world’s richest lottery is Spain’s annual Christmas “El Gordo”, which in 2015 handed out 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) but which capped individual wins at 400,000 euros and handed out thousands of smaller prizes. But Wasserstein said he and his colleagues know too well the almost impossible odds to plunk down even $2 for a ticket.
