CNN
—
Feeling lucky? The potential prize for the massive Powerball jackpot just made history, lottery officials announced Friday.
A fortunate player could end up taking home $615 million in Saturday’s drawing – the 10th-largest Powerball prize ever. The jackpot has a $310.6 million lump-sum cash value, according to a Powerball news release.
Game leaders upped the ante Friday after increasing the possible winnings from an estimated $590 million.
“The decision to raise the jackpot was the result of strong ticket sales and an increase in the interest rates used to fund the annuitized prize,” a spokesperson for the Multi-State Lottery Association told CNN in an email.
There have been 33 consecutive drawings without a big winner.
The last time a lottery player matched all five white balls and the red Powerball was on April 19, when a winning ticket in Ohio earned a grand prize of $252.6 million.
The lucky winner of Saturday’s jackpot could choose between the annuitized $615 million prize over 30 years or to take the lump-sum payment. Both prizes are before taxes, according to lottery officials.
No one matched all six drawn numbers – the white balls of 17, 24, 48, 62 and 68 along with the red Powerball of 23 – on Wednesday. However, three lucky players in Florida, Ohio and New York won $1 million prizes, according to officials.
The drawing produced over 864,000 winning tickets for lower-tier prizes nationwide on Wednesday worth a combined total of $9 million.
“If no one wins the jackpot Saturday night, we are projecting an estimated jackpot of $650 million for Monday’s drawing,” a Multi-State Lottery Association spokesperson said.
A ticket sold in California won the largest-ever Powerball prize of $2.04 billion on November 7, 2022.
The Powerball isn’t the only massive lottery prize this week. The Mega Millions jackpot is also approaching half a billion dollars, making it the 14th largest prize in Mega Millions history. Players will have a chance to claim the $480 million jackpot during Tuesday’s drawing.
