Powerball's July 19 jackpot is an estimated $1 billion. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Powerball’s jackpot is estimated at $1 billion for Wednesday’s drawing, the seventh-largest U.S. lottery prize ever.
Driving the news: Despite the large prize — the cash option for the July 19 drawing is an estimated $516.8 million — the odds of getting struck by lightning are more likely than winning the jackpot.
- No one has won the Powerball jackpot since April 19 and there have been 38 straight drawings without a grand-prize winner.
- The odds of being struck by lightning in a year are less than one in a million, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Context: It's the third-largest Powerball and the third time in the lottery's 31-year history that a jackpot has reached the billion-dollar threshold, said Drew Svitko, Powerball product group chair and Pennsylvania lottery executive director.
The big picture: Bigger prizes — and fewer jackpot winners — have become the norm for the past few years after Powerball and Mega Millions made the games harder to win and more enticing to play.
Meanwhile, Mega Millions estimated jackpot for Friday, July 21 is up to $720 million, the fifth-largest jackpot of the game.
Powerball drawing time
Wednesday's drawing is at 10:59pm ET and will be broadcast on the Powerball website and television stations across the country from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.
- Drawings are held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
How to play Powerball lottery
State of play: Lottery players can pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers — five different numbers from 1 to 69 (the white balls) and one number from 1 to 26 for the red Powerball.
- "Quick Pick" or "Easy Pick" tickets can also be purchased where numbers are selected automatically.
Powerball ticket prices
Powerball tickets are $2 per play but for an extra $1 per play you can add the Power Play feature to "multiply non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 times."
State of play: National ticket sales have doubled from the same time last week, Powerball said Wednesday.
Powerball cut-off time: How late to buy tickets
The deadline to purchase tickets for Wednesday's drawing varies by state because Powerball tickets are sold by individual lotteries.
- The lottery said game leaders forecast the bulk of ticket sales for Wednesday's drawing will happen in the final hours leading up to state lottery sales cut-off times.
States selling Powerball tickets
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah do not participate in the lottery.
Powerball odds versus Mega Millions
Between the lines: The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
- The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9.
- The jackpot odds for Mega Millions are 1 in 303 million.
Does buying more Powerball tickets increase odds?
Zoom out: If you buy tickets with different numbers, buying more tickets does increase your odds, said Tim Chartier, a Davidson College math professor.
- So if you buy five tickets with different numbers, you are five times more likely to win than buying just one ticket, Chartier said.
- The professor suggests picking random numbers will help odds versus favorite numbers or birthdays.
Powerball jackpot annuity versus cash
How it works: Powerball jackpot winners can choose an "annuity option" instead of just taking the amount of money in the prize pool, Axios’ Felix Salmon reports.
- The annuity option is an annual payout over 30 years, with the sum paid out rising by 5% each year.
- The headline jackpot size is not the amount in the prize pool but rather the size of all those 30 payments, added together.
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