The Powerball jackpot has ballooned to $1.7 billion, the third highest in history, after no one won the latest drawing Wednesday night.
No one won the ticket that matched all six numbers drawn on Wednesday: white balls 3, 16, 29, 61 and 69 and red Powerball 22.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, and the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9.
The next drawing is scheduled for Saturday night. The jackpot has a cash value of about $770.3 million.
Eleven tickets were sold that matched all five white balls, winning $1-million prizes, including two in California, according to the release. Those were sold in Riverside and Bakersfield while the others outside the state were sold in Peyton, Colo.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Commerce, Ga.; Atlanta; Aurora, Ill.; Pikesville, Md.; Inver Grove Heights, Minn.; Canfield, Ohio; and one in Pennsylvania, where the exact location hasn’t been announced.
Four tickets won $2 million by matching all five white balls and including the Power Play option for $1 more at purchase, according to the release. They were sold in Detroit, Houston and in Wyoming and Oregon, where the exact cities haven’t been announced.
There were 117 tickets that won $50,000 prizes and 36 tickets that won a $100,000 prize.
If someone wins the Powerball jackpot, they can choose between an annuitized prize of $1.70 billion or a lump sum payment of $770.3 million, according to a Powerball news release. Both are before taxes.
If the winner picks the annuity option, they receive one payment immediately and then 29 annual payments, increasing by 5% each year.
The highest-ever Powerball jackpots were both won in California — in November 2022, when Edwin Castro of Altadena purchased a ticket worth $2.04 billion, and in October 2023, Theodorus Struyck and a group of people in Frazier Park won the $1.765-billion Powerball lottery.
In April 2024, Cheng “Charlie” Saephan won the $1.3-billion jackpot in Oregon, the fourth-largest ever.
Other sizable jackpot wins include:
- A $1.586-billion jackpot in January 2016, won by three people, in California, Florida and Tennessee
- A $1.09-billion jackpot in April 2024
- A $1.08-billion jackpot in July 2023 in California
- An $842.4-million jackpot in January 2024 in Michigan
- A $768.4-million jackpot in March 2019 in Wisconsin
- A $758.7-million jackpot in August 2017 in Massachusetts
- A $754.6-million jackpot in February 2023 in Washington
The most recent Powerball jackpot winner was announced in June, when a player bought a ticket worth $204.5 million at a 7-Eleven on Woodman Avenue in Arleta.
Two of the four Powerball jackpot winners this year have been from Southern California. In March, someone bought a ticket worth $515 million in Anaheim.
The other two Powerball winners were in January, when a player in Oregon bought a ticket worth $328.5 million, and in April, when a winner in Kentucky purchased a ticket worth $167.3 million.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a release. The drawings are broadcast every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and livestreamed on Powerball.com.
