Three months have passed since Powerball last produced a winner, which has caused the lottery’s jackpot to climb gradually.
After no one hit all six numbers in Wednesday’s drawing, the jackpot for Saturday’s drawing will reach a near-record $1.5 billion, making it the third-largest jackpot in U.S. history.
One person in Colorado on Wednesday won $1 million after matching all five numbers, but missing the Powerball. Colorado had other winners as well, including a person who won $50,000 and 149 people who won $100.
The numbers drawn on Wednesday were white balls 2, 11, 22, 35, 60 and red Powerball 23.
The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million. There have been four winning Powerball tickets sold in 2022.
The Powerball jackpot has grown since a winning ticket was sold on Aug. 3.
Powerball also has prizes of $4 up to $2 million. The odds of winning a smaller prize are about 1 in 25. There were nearly 7.2 million winning tickets for smaller prizes on Wednesday. Among the smaller prizes, 19 tickets on Wednesday hit all five white balls, which pays out at least $1 million.
Saturday will mark Powerball’s 40th drawing since it last produced a winner. It would tie the longest streak of Powerball drawings without a winner if no one wins on Saturday.
Powerball is played in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Saturday’s jackpot is the largest Powerball has had since three winning tickets split a top prize of $1.586 billion in January 2016.