The sixth-largest jackpot in Powerball history, worth an estimated $620 million, will be drawn on Saturday evening.
According to the non-profit Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which runs Powerball, there has not been a Powerball jackpot winner since the drawing on June 5. Since then, the jackpot has steadily grown due to a record 39 rollovers. It currently has a cash value of $446 million.
“This will be our first Powerball jackpot won since the game launched a third weekly drawing on Monday nights,” May Scheve Reardon, Powerball Product Group Chair and Missouri Lottery Executive Director, said Wednesday before that evening’s drawing in which there was also no grand prize winner. At the time, the jackpot stood at an estimated $570 million, with a cash value of $410.1 million.
“We wanted to give players more opportunities to get into the game, and now that the jackpot has crossed the half-billion-dollar mark, it’s generating a lot of excitement,” Reardon added.
A jackpot prize of $285.6 million was claimed in Florida on June 5 by Clay Tousey of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Tousey is a trustee of The Love You More Trust, which had purchased the winning ticket. The trust ultimately decided to receive their winnings in a one-time lump sum payment of $196,706,252.17, rather than have it paid in an annuity over a 29-year period.
Biggest jackpot was $1.59 million in 2016
Saturday’s Powerball jackpot currently stands as the sixth-largest in the multi-state lottery’s history.
The biggest jackpot was awarded on January 13, 2016, when three sets of winners from California, Florida and Tennessee divided a jackpot of $1,586,400,000. The winners elected to receive their prize in a lump sum cash payment of $983,505,233.36.
The second-largest jackpot, totaling $768.4 million, was won by Manuel Franco of Wisconsin on March 27, 2019. Mavis Wanczyk, a resident of Massachusetts, won the third-largest jackpot, $758.7 million, on August 23, 2017.
Earlier this year, the fourth-largest jackpot was awarded. A group from Maryland called The Power Pack won $731.1 million on January 20. The lead-up to that jackpot was preceded by a then-record 35 rollovers.
Two winners—Lerynne West of Iowa and Robert Bailey of New York—divided the fifth-largest jackpot. It was $687.8 million and was drawn on October 27, 2018.
The current jackpot is only $67,800,000 out of fifth place. If there is no winner and rollovers continue, it is likely to become the fifth-largest jackpot in October.
One reason for the current high jackpot was the addition of a third weekly drawing, which started with a drawing on August 23.
Before it launched, MUSL and its Powerball Products Group had projected that adding a third drawing would create larger jackpots in a shorter amount of time. They also anticipated that there would be an increase in the number of cash prizes and jackpots awarded annually. Powerball is now drawn on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings.
Despite the additional drawing day, the odds of winning the grand prize remained the same: 1 in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9.
