Lottery admiral say sales accept been able-bodied back no one won Wednesday's estimated $500 actor jackpot, and the cost for Saturday's cartoon could abound even more. It will be the better U.S. jackpot ever, above the antecedent almanac of a $656 actor Mega Millions cost won in 2012 by players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.
Powerball is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Here are some data about the behemothic jackpot:
HOW DID THE JACKPOT GET SO LARGE?
The jackpot for the twice-weekly bold started at $40 actor on Nov. 4 and has been growing anytime since. Because the payout is based on sales, the cost has developed added bound as humans blitz to buy tickets.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
A champ would accept the advantage of accepting paid $800 actor through anniversary payments over 29 years or opting for $496 actor in cash.
THE ODDS? NOT GOOD
The allowance are one in 292.2 million, which agency you're really, really, absolutely absurd to win. To put those allowance in perspective, they're about the aforementioned as the adventitious of flipping a bread and accepting active 28 times in a row. But as action admiral generally note, you accept no adventitious of acceptable if you don't buy a ticket.
POOLING YOUR MONEY
Some players feel they advance their adventitious of acceptable by pooling their money with co-workers, with a affiance to breach the winnings. While that can access the fun of playing, the allowance of acceptable are so tiny that abacus 50 or 100 affairs doesn't change much. Action admiral acclaim that if humans basin their money, they put in autograph how they plan to breach the cost — back it's simple for misunderstandings to crop up if hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.
