The Powerball jackpot spiked to an estimated $875 million after no winning ticket was sold for the last drawing.
No ticket for Wednesday’s $750 million jackpot matched the white balls 23, 35, 45, 66, 67 and red Powerball 20.
The new jackpot prize for Saturday’s drawing is the third highest in the history of the lottery. The winner will have a chance at either $875 million paid out in yearly increments or a $441.9 million one-time payment before taxes.
The huge jackpot is a testament to its incredible odds of 1 in 292.2 million. The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion Powerball last November. Before then, a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won in 2016 was the highest ever.
The last time a Powerball jackpot winner emerged was on April 19 for a grand prize of about $253 million. No one has ever won the top prize in the past 36 consecutive drawings since then.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Five states — Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada — don’t sell lottery tickets.)
According to research, about 60% of the revenue generated from lotteries in the United States goes directly to winners, while the states keep the balance after paying out the prize money and other costs such as advertisements. But for larger lotteries, such as Mega Millions or Powerball, half of the ticket revenue goes toward the game’s prize pool.
