Slowly but steadily, the Powerball jackpot rose and now it stands at $325 million, making it the fourth largest in the lottery’s history. Despite the fact that more players purchased tickets than ever before, so far nobody was inspired enough to select the winning ones and the jackpot rose by an average of $35 million per week. The ratio has increased dramatically lately, and it is almost certain that if the Saturday draw fails to nominate a winner, next week we’ll have the largest jackpot ever in Powerball.
One step away from when you record
In 2006, a lucky player won $365 million in Powerball and it appeared like nobody will surpass him anytime soon. Those who made this prediction were quite accurate, because until now there wasn’t any serious reason to expect the jackpots to climb about this value. One year before the record was set, another player won in excess of $300 million, more precisely $340 millions were won in 2005.
It comes as no surprise that the next time the prize surpassed that threshold was in 2012 because this is the year when the price of the Powerball tickets doubled. Some thought that increasing the price of a standard Powerball ticket from $1-$2 was a risky move for the lottery, because it would decrease the number of lottery players. Fortunately this wasn’t the case and while the number of players didn’t change too much, the prizes kept growing at an accelerated pace. This is how it was possible for a lucky player to win $336 million in March this year, and only six months later another one can win just as much.
The record might be broken
Although players are tempted to believe that this time someone will collect the main prize, past performance doesn’t represent an indicator of future results. It makes little difference that for so many consecutive draws nobody predicted the lucky numbers, because the chances of someone winning on Saturday are the same. More precisely the chances are one in 175 million, so we have good reasons to expect the jackpot to exceed $400 million on Wednesday.
If this scenario comes true, then the jackpot will become the second-largest prize ever to be awarded in a lottery. For the time being the first three places are occupied by Mega Millions jackpot with the top one standing at $656 million, although the money was split between three ticket holders. On the other hand, if the jackpot is won on Saturday, the winner will receive an amount of $212 million if he chooses the lump payment or the full sum if he opts in for the annuity. Regardless of his or her choice, the jackpot will also be subject to taxation.
About Joe Knapp
Hello, my name is Joe and you can find me on Google+. I`m lucky enough to be a part of LotteryCrunch.com’s fantastic team and an editor of LotteryPros.com at the same time. Every day we are looking for the best lottery draws, attractive offers, interesting events, latest news, lucky winners’ stories and hot promotions in order to make a life of the lottery players easier. Serving you is our constant priority!
