Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? The Powerball prize pool grows and grows, sending the US into lotto fever. At $1.5 billion, the jackpot is already the third highest in US history. The chance of winning the big prize isn't exactly encouraging, however.
In the USA, the jackpot of the Powerball lottery has grown to 1.5 billion dollars - around 1.52 billion euros - and is thus on course for a world record. In the drawing on Wednesday evening, no participant was again able to guess six correct ones, as the lottery operator announced. It was already the 39th unsuccessful drawing. At the time, the jackpot was worth around $1.2 billion.
The next drawing on Saturday night is now for an estimated $ 1.5 billion. This is the second largest jackpot in Powerball history and the third largest jackpot in US Lotto history. The possible winner can have the sum paid out over a period of around 30 years - or opt for a one-off payment of almost 746 million dollars.
In January 2016, three Powerball players shared the world's largest jackpot in history, amounting to $1.586 billion. The second highest jackpot - and the highest won by a single player - was worth $1.537 billion and was hit in October 2018 on the Mega Millions lottery. If no one clears next Saturday, the current Powerball jackpot could trump these records.
And it's not even expensive to play: Powerball lottery tickets cost two dollars and are sold in 45 US states as well as the metropolitan area of Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The chance of hitting the jackpot is about one in 292 million - well below the risk of being struck by lightning.
