Powerball Jackpot Rolls to $1.3 Billion - Where Will It Stop?

The current, phenomenal, jackpot has been building up for three months now, crossing the 'billion-dollar' threshold on Saturday 30^th. Although nobody landed the jackpot on Monday's Labor Day drawing, 12 lucky ticket-holders still took home million-dollar prizes, and over 150 winners landed prizes worth tens-of-thousands of dollars!

 

Jackpot Records

The current Powerball jackpot, should it be won next draw, would be the fifth-largest the game has ever seen, although the jackpot figure is only an estimate. Strong ticket sales or an intervention by the lottery operators could see it boosted even higher before the draw.

We're still a long way off the record jackpot (not just the record Powerball jackpot, but the biggest prize in any lottery Of All Time) which was won in California, back in 2022. One exceedingly lucky ticket-holder claimed the entire $2.04 billion jackpot for himself.

More populous states like California are always more likely to win the big prizes. It's not bias, this is simply because they have more people, more people means more players, and more players means a better chance of winning.

 

More Players Than Usual

Due to the excitement building around the jackpot, many more players are getting tickets than usual, leading to far more prizes being awarded, compared to other Powerball draws. For example, over 3,000,000 players landed a $4 prize in the latest draw - back when the jackpot was a comparatively small $45 million on June 7^th (for example), fewer than 300,000 players landed a $4 prize. That's roughly a 10x difference! The odds were the same, but there were far fewer tickets.

 

Do Players Affect Odds?

For some people, it can intuitively feel like more people playing reduces your odds of winning, but that's not how it works at all (the author included, even though a lottery writer, of all people, should know that's not how it works!). No matter how many players there are, the chances of your ticket winning are always the same.

If the game were a raffle, where the prize is guaranteed to be won by one player, then the number of participants would make a big difference - that's where much of the confusion comes from. We do see this in some lotteries globally, such as the UK's Millionaire Maker raffle (a regional add-on for the massive EuroMillions lottery). Raffles are less common in the U.S., though many state lotteries run standalone holiday raffles at the end of the year.

Attaching the raffle to a jackpot game, like EuroMillions + Millionaire Maker, is actually a pretty smart idea. It encourages players to get tickets for the low-jackpot draws that generally don't see as many entries. With fewer entries, each player's odds of winning the guaranteed £1,000,000 prize are much better!

 

Getting Involved

Back to America now though, and that incredible Powerball jackpot. If you want a piece of the action, head over to our Tickets Page.

In many states, it's now possible to participate in Powerball online, without requiring a physical ticket. It's faster, more convenient, and more secure (hey, you can't put a digital ticket in with the laundry by mistake!). Why not save a trip to the store, and give it a try?