That July drawing was only the third Powerball jackpot win that reached or surpassed $1 billion. Twenty-seven Powerball drawings have taken place since the $1.08 billion jackpot was won in July. Another ticket sold in Georgia won $1 million for matching the first five numbers without the multiplier. Two tickets, sold in Georgia and Texas, took $2 million each for matching the first five numbers and having activated a “power play” multiplier. From a general perspective, it appears that the Powerball lottery tickets have a positive expected value but we didnt include all the other factors yet. Though no one secured the top prize Wednesday night, more than 1 million tickets won some type of prize – most of them taking $21 or less. The current Powerball jackpot is at roughly 675 million USD and the chances of winning with one random ticket is 1 in 292.2 million. If Saturday’s drawing has one grand prize winner, that person could choose to take the whole jackpot in graduated payments over 29 years, or take a lump sum of an estimated $345.7 million, the lottery said. Saturday’s jackpot also would be the eighth-largest prize in the game’s history, the lottery said Wednesday. The $725 million jackpot for Saturday’s drawing would be the third-largest Powerball prize this year, following a $754.6 million jackpot won in Washington state in February and the colossal $1.08 billion jackpot won in California in July. Wednesday’s numbers were 16, 27, 59, 62 and 63 with a Powerball of 23.

Powerball players now have the chance to win an estimated $725 million jackpot this weekend after Wednesday night’s drawing produced no big winner.

Current value powerball jackpot