Powerball’s jackpot climbed to a whopping $1.2 billion ahead of Wednesday night’s drawing.
The jackpot is now the third-largest in the history of the game, and the seventh-largest of all U.S. lottery jackpots.
No one matched all six numbers on Monday, when the Powerball jackpot had just passed the billion-dollar mark. A few lucky winners matched five of six numbers, scoring them $1 million — which doubled to $2 million for those who used the Power Play feature.
Should a player win the top prize Wednesday, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize of about $1.2 billion or a lump sum payment around $551.7 million — which are both before taxes, Powerball said. If the annuity option is chosen, a player gets an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that grow by 5% each year.
This is the first time in Powerball history that jackpot cycles have produced billion-dollar grand prizes back-to-back, the company said. In July, a lucky winner in California matched all six numbers to win $1.08 billion. There hasn’t been a jackpot winner in the 32 drawings since.
Powerball tickets cost $2 per play.
Drawings happen every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET. The odds of hitting the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
