It has been since May 31 that anyone has hit all six numbers in the multistate Powerball lottery, causing the jackpot to grow with each drawing.
On Wednesday, the streak of drawings without a winner grew to 41, as no one matched the five white balls and one Powerball. The jackpot was worth almost $1.4 billion. Without a winner, Saturday's jackpot will be even larger, making it the biggest jackpot for a Powerball drawing in 2025 and the third-largest in the lottery's history.
Saturday's $1.7 billion jackpot marks the highest for any multistate lottery this year. If someone wins the jackpot, they have the option of choosing the $1.7 billion payment spread over 29 years, or a lump sum worth about $770.3 million before tax.
The last time the Powerball jackpot exceeded $1.7 billion was on Oct. 11, 2023.
Although Wednesday's drawing did not result in a jackpot winner, 15 players won at least $1 million by matching all five white ball numbers.
RELATED STORY | Jackpot claimed: About the $1.3 billion Powerball win
The numbers for Wednesday's drawing were 3, 16, 29, 61, 69 and red Powerball 22.g
The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million.
Powerball also offers prizes ranging from $4 to $2 million, and the odds of winning a smaller prize are about 1 in 25.
Powerball is played in 45 states and Washington, D.C.
Since Powerball lengthened the odds of hitting all six numbers in 2015, the multistate lottery has generally had six to nine winners a year. All 10 of its largest jackpots have also occurred since 2015. The largest Powerball jackpot in history was $2.04 billion, won on Nov. 7, 2022.
