This Saturday, on the eve of the last day of the year, Powerball draws 760 million dollars in the United States. This is the sixth largest prize in the history of the popular American game of chance.
On the night of last December 27, no one matched the winning numbers, which were: 4, 11, 38, 51 and 68; Powerball 5 and Powerplay 3x.
If there was a winner in the drawing on December 30, the winner could choose between receiving the total amount of the jackpot distributed in annual payments over 30 years, or a one-time cash payment of $382.5 million.
Throughout 2023 Powerball has delivered five large jackpots, with three of them ranking among the ten greatest in the history of the game.
The winners were: $754.6 million on February 6 in Washington; $162.6 million on March 4 in Virginia; $252.6 million on April 19 in Ohio; 1,080 million dollars in California on July 19 and in that same state 1,765 million dollars on October 11.
The last grand prize, 1.765 million, was won by a single player in California. That amount became the second largest in the history of the well-known game of chance.
In November 2022, Erdwin Castro, a 30-year-old former mechanic and aspiring architect of Hispanic origin, became the winner of the largest prize ever paid in any lottery in the world.
Castro won $2.04 billion with a ticket he purchased at a Joe’s Service Center gas station in Altadena, a town in Los Angeles, California, with just over 42,000 inhabitants. In that case, the lucky person was left with 997.6 million after choosing to collect the prize only.
The slim chances of hitting the Powerball jackpot, which is one in 292.2 million, are designed to accumulate large sums that attract more players.
Powerball costs two dollars a ticket and is played in 45 states, as well as Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
There are only eight states, Florida among them, that do not charge state taxes on lottery winnings, which means they offer the highest payment. In addition to the Sunshine State, California, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming appear on that list.
To participate in the draw – held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays – it is necessary to choose five numbers between 1 and 59, in addition to a sixth number between 1 and 35, which is called Powerball.
You can pay an extra amount – called “Powerplay” – so that if you win, the jackpot is multiplied by two, three, five or ten.
Although the chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is difficult, history shows that it is not impossible.
