Powerball Jackpot Jumps to $760 Million After Wednesday’s Drawing

The Powerball jackpot has reached $760 million after no one claimed the winning numbers from Wednesday night's drawing.

Game officials earlier on Wednesday had raised the grand prize to $700 million from $685 million after Powerball's Christmas Day drawing sparked a surge in ticket sales. There have now been 33 Powerball drawings in a row that failed to produce a jackpot winner.

The grand prize will next be up for grabs on Saturday. If a lucky player's ticket matches all six numbers called by Powerball, they could win the sixth-largest jackpot in the game's history, according to Powerball.

Whoever has that ticket with all the matching numbers called by Powerball has two options to claim the spoils: accept a lump-sum payment of $382.5 million, or take the full $760 million jackpot in annual payments spread out over three decades.

After federal taxes are accounted for, a winner who accepts a lump-sum payment will take home about $241 million, according to calculations by Usamega.com. Some individuals may also have to pay state taxes on the prize, depending on which state they live in.

“This Powerball jackpot is climbing the charts and it’s anyone’s guess whether our next big winner will be made in 2023 or the New Year,” Drew Svitko, Powerball's product group chair, said Wednesday.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are microscopic, just 1 in 292,201,338, while the odds of winning a $1 million prize are slightly better at 1 in 11,688,053. The odds of winning any singular prize — including just $4 — are much better for players, at 1 in 24.9, according to Powerball.

Although no one took home the grand prize on Wednesday, one ticket in Texas matched all five white numbers and the Power Play, winning $2 million. A ticket in California matched all five white numbers, scoring a $1 million prize.

This is the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed a half billion dollars over the past year. The last such jackpot was won on Oct. 11, with a winning ticket in California of $1.76 billion — the second-largest U.S. lottery prize ever won.

Mega Millions, the U.S.'s other large lottery operator, has awarded five prizes of over $1 billion, including a $1.6 billion jackpot won on Aug. 8.