Powerball jackpot up to $850 million after months without a big winner

An estimated $850 million Powerball jackpot will be up for grabs Wednesday night for players willing to risk a few bucks and brave incredibly long odds.

The jackpot is the world’s ninth-largest lottery prize of all time, trailing previous prizes in the Powerball and Mega Millions games, all of which exceeded $1 billion.

The jackpot has become so large because there have been 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner since July 19th. Powerball’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with the prizes getting bigger and bigger as they keep changing and no one wins.

The largest jackpot was a $2.04 billion Powerball prize won by a player in California in November 2022.

In most states, a Powerball ticket costs $2 and players can choose their own numbers or leave the task to a computer.

The $850 million jackpot is for the sole winner who chooses to receive payout in the form of an annuity spread over 30 years. Winners almost always choose the cash option, which would be an estimated $397.4 million in Wednesday night’s drawing.

These winnings would be subject to federal tax, and many states also tax lottery winnings.

Powerball is played in 45 states as well as Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.