- Saturday’s drawing is the 42nd of a run that began after the jackpot was last won May 2.
- The advertised $856 million is an annuity estimate; the cash option is $372.0 million.
- At true odds, a $2 ticket on a 1-in-292.2-million outcome would return about $584 million.
- The run has produced 36 Match 5 winners, including a $1 million Ohio ticket Wednesday.
DES MOINES, Iowa – The Powerball jackpot rolled to an estimated $856 million for Saturday’s drawing, the eighth largest in the game’s history, after no ticket matched all six numbers Wednesday night.
A Run Of 41 Drawings And 36 Match 5 Winners
The last 41 drawings have gone without a jackpot winner, and Saturday’s will be the 42nd of the run. Wednesday’s numbers came up 14, 20, 59, 60 and 61 with a Powerball of 25 and a 2X Power Play, and no ticket in the country held all six. Powerball announced the new estimate on Aug. 6.
The grand prize was last claimed May 2, when two tickets split a $20 million jackpot. One was sold in Florida, the other in Texas.
Money has still moved underneath the top prize. The run has produced 36 Match 5 winners, the $1 million tier directly below the jackpot, the most recent an Ohio Lottery ticket from Wednesday’s drawing.
The $856 Million Is An Estimate, Not A Balance
The advertised prize is an annuity, not a sum sitting in an account. A winner who takes it receives one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that rise 5% each year. Powerball, which is administered by the Multi-State Lottery Association, treats both the advertised annuity and the cash value as estimates until ticket sales close, and the annuity is not final until the association takes bids on the securities that fund the payments.
The cash value is the figure that describes money anyone can hold. Powerball defines it as the amount required to sit in the prize pool on the day of the drawing to fund that 30-year stream. On Saturday that is $372.0 million, or about 43 cents for every dollar of the advertised prize, before any tax comes out of it.
That split between the advertised number and the payable one is standard across the big multi-state draw games carried by the best online lottery sites, and it is the most misread line on a lottery sign.
What 1 In 292.2 Million Pays
A jackpot carries two numbers, and only one of them moves. Powerball’s published chance of matching all six is 1 in 292.2 million, a frequency fixed by the game’s number matrix, and it stays put however large the prize gets. What moves is the payout, and the distance between the two is where the money is made.
A $2 ticket paying at true odds on a 1-in-292.2-million outcome would return roughly $584 million. Saturday’s cash jackpot is $372.0 million, about $212 million short of that mark. The shortfall comes before federal withholding, before state tax, and before any split with a second ticket carrying the same combination.
The lower tiers narrow the distance a little. Powerball puts the odds of winning any prize at 1 in 24.9, and the Match 5 tier is where most of the run’s real money has landed.
The same arithmetic sets the house edge on every game and market carried across USA gambling sites. A lottery draw simply runs the widest version of it.
What Happens Saturday
If no ticket matches all six numbers again, the run reaches 42 drawings without a jackpot winner and the prize rolls to Monday’s draw, more than three months after the Florida and Texas tickets last claimed it.