NEW YORK — Have you bought your Powerball ticket?
The current jackpot for the national lottery has reached $314 million after going weeks without a winner.
The next drawing is Saturday night. If a winner isn’t drawn, the pot will grow even bigger.
The last jackpot to reach this level eventually grew to become the largest in U.S. history — $1.5 billion.
That jackpot garnered a lot of attention until three winning tickets were sold in January in Chino Hills, California, Munford, Tennessee and Melbourne Beach, Florida.
While the jackpot is advertised as being worth $314 million, a winner will only receive that amount if they take the annuity — the money is paid out over 30 years.
The lump sum option, which is more popular, has a cash value of $204.7 million.
As the pot grows, more and more people are likely to rush out to pick their numbers. But the odds of winning aren’t great.
Individual tickets have only a 1 in 292 million chance of having the jackpot-winning six-digit combination.
Even just guessing the Powerball number, which will get you $4, is hard — the odds are 1 in 38.
