/Powerball jackpot grows to $400 million ahead of Saturdays drawing

Powerball jackpot grows to $400 million ahead of Saturdays drawing

The lottery game marks its 30th anniversary this week.

The Powerball jackpot has grown to an estimated $400 million, as the game marks 30 years of drawings.

The American lottery game’s first drawing was held on April 22, 1992, with tickets selling for $1. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia initially participated. A winning ticket in that first drawing was sold in Indiana for the $5.9 million jackpot (about $12 million today).

The next drawing is Saturday and has a $240.8 million cash value, after 28 drawings in a row without a jackpot winner. Tickets are $2 and sold in 45 states, as well as D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Since the Powerball started, there have been 393 jackpot-winning tickets sold totaling $25 billion in prizes. The most recent jackpot was hit in the Feb. 14 drawing, with a ticket sold in Connecticut winning $185.3 million.

The jackpot was hit one other time so far this year. Two tickets sold in California and Wisconsin in the Jan. 5 drawing split the $632.6 million prize — the seventh-largest jackpot in Powerball’s history.

The largest Powerball jackpot was a world record-setting $1.586 billion in January 2016.

The odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9, while the jackpot odds are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.

Over 30 years, there have been over 1 billion prize winners overall. The game has also raised $27 billion toward public services and causes supported by lotteries, such as education, veterans, senior citizens and environmental conservation.

Jackpot winners may choose to receive their prize as an annuity, paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or in a lump sum.

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