American lottery players were hoping Wednesday for the biggest Christmas gift imaginable — materially speaking at least.
The Powerball game hasn’t been won in more than two months and the jackpot of $707 million is of the size that starts to catch casual players’ eyes.
The winning numbers were 4-11-38-51-68, with the Powerball being 5.
The $707 million jackpot is not one of the 10 richest in U.S. history — that would require a jackpot of almost $770 million. But half-billion and more prizes are becoming increasingly common.
The 15 biggest jackpots, the champion being a $2.04 billion prize won in November 2022, have all come since 2016.
Powerball expanded to three nights a week in 2021, adding a Monday drawing to its Wednesday and Saturday games. Powerball said that the extra drawing would lead to “larger, faster-growing jackpots.”
Powerball was last won Oct. 11.
If taken in a single lump sum of cash, as most recent big lottery winners have chosen to do, Monday’s $707 million prize would be worth about $355 million. The larger, advertised amount is what the other option — a 29-year annuity — would be worth over its lifetime.
Federal taxes would quickly take almost 40% of that amount, with state taxes a possibility on top of that.
The $2 Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The five states on the outside are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.
The odds of a winning Powerball ticket are 1 in 292.2 million.
Please read
our comment policy before commenting.
