Purchase a Powerball ticket if you are reading this.
The anticipated $785 million jackpot for Monday’s Powerball drawing will be the fourth-largest payout in the game, trailing just three jackpots worth $1 billion that have been won since 2016.
The $725 million jackpot for Monday night’s drawing is expected to go unclaimed after it was awarded after the lottery on Saturday night at 10:59 p.m. EST.
The numbers drawn on Saturday night were red Powerball 21, white balls 1, 12, 20, 33, and 66.
Tickets for the Powerball draw cost $2 apiece. For the white ball drawings, participants must select five numbers between 1 and 69, and for the red Powerball drawing, they must select one number between 1 and 26. Players can win smaller prizes through additional matching combinations in addition to the jackpot by matching all five white balls and the red Powerball.
After matching all five white balls on Saturday night, three winners—in California, Florida, and New York—went home with a $1 million cash reward, while one winner—in Michigan—went home with a $2 million cash prize. Nine tickets earned $100,000, while 30 other tickets won rewards of $50,000 each.
If there is a winner on Monday night, they will have the option of receiving the entire cash in 29 years’ worth of installments or a single sum payout expected to be around $367 million – both before taxes.
But before you spend too much time considering your options, remember that while the chances of winning any reward in the upcoming drawing are generally about 1 in 25, the chances of winning the jackpot are substantially lower at 1 in approximately 292 million.
The most recent Powerball prize, worth $1.08 billion, was won on July 19 and sold in Los Angeles’ financial district. There have been more than twenty consecutive lotteries without a jackpot winner since then.
In November of last year, a player in California won the biggest prize ever, which was worth $2.04 billion.