Powerball’s Wednesday Jackpot Jumps to $630M, as Ticket Sales Increase Nationwide

For the third time in less than a year, the Powerball jackpot has grown past $600 million. Officials with the multi-state lottery game announced Wednesday morning that the top prize for the next drawing, occurring Wednesday night, would be $630 million.

The last time the jackpot went out, it happened on Oct. 4. That drawing for $699.8 million was Powerball’s fifth-largest prize and second-largest last year, trailing only to the .

Wednesday’s drawing will be the 40th since the last time someone matched all five numbers and the Powerball. If no one matches again, it’ll tie the record for most drawings without a winner.

Powerball is played in 45 states (all except for Alaska, Alabama, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah), as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. For $2 a chance, players pick five numbers from a lot of 1 to 69, and then the Powerball from a separate lot of 1 to 26.

The odds of winning any prize, which starts at $4, is 1 in 24.9.

Matching all six numbers – the odds of which are 1 in 292.2 million – wins the jackpot, or a share of it if more than one ticket is correct. Winners can choose between receiving the prize over 30 annual installment payments, or taking the cash-value lump sum.

The current cash value is $448.4 million.

Wednesday’s drawing will take place at 10:59 pm ET. Check your local lottery on cutoff times for sales.

While no one hit the jackpot, Powerball Product Group Chair May Scheve Reardon said in a statement Tuesday that nearly 2 million people won a cash prize from Monday’s drawing.

We’re thrilled to offer players a jackpot that has hit the $600 million mark,” said Reardon, who is also the Missouri Lottery’s executive director. “Although no one hit the jackpot, we had more than 1.8 million tickets win a cash prize in last night’s drawing.”

Three tickets matched the first five numbers. That gave players in Connecticut and Texas $1 million each, while in Montana, a ticket that also included the $1 Power Play won $2 million.

High demand across the country led Multi-State Lottery Association to boost its estimate from $575 million to $610 million Tuesday, and then again by $20 million on Wednesday. At its current forecast value, the jackpot ranks as the seventh-largest in Powerball’s history.

In just five days, has risen from $500 million.

According to , nearly $95.2 million in tickets were sold on Monday. Saturday’s ticket sales were $127.6 million. That was the highest sales total since the Oct. 2 drawing, which generated $145.9 million in sales.

Not surprisingly, the most-populated states were the top markets for ticket sales. California, the most populous state, had $11.7 million in sales Monday and $15.1 million for the New Year’s Day drawing.

Florida had $8.6 million in sales Monday and $11.5 million on Saturday. In New York, sales were $8.3 million and $9.6 million for Monday and Saturday, respectively.

Texas reported sales of $7.5 million on Monday and $9.9 million on Saturday.