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Powerball jackpot at $415 million ahead of Saturday night’s drawing

Posted at 10:40 PM, May 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-07 22:40:05-04

NEW YORK — Will Saturday night’s drawing finally produce a winner?

The current jackpot for the national Powerball lottery has hit $415 million after 18 drawings without a big winner.

This pot has been growing since March 2, after a 67-year-old man in Florida claimed the previous Powerball jackpot of $291.4 million.

Powerball numbers are drawn each week on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 10:59 pm ET.

Now that the current jackpot has reached over $400 million, it’s made the list of the largest lottery jackpots of all time.

If no one wins after Saturday’s drawing, the jackpot could go up to $525 million, according to the Texas Lottery.

The last jackpot to reach this level eventually grew into the largest in U.S. history — $1.5 billion.

That one garnered a lot of attention. In January, three winning tickets were sold in Chino Hills, California; Munford, Tennessee; and Melbourne Beach, Florida.

While the jackpot is advertised as being worth $415 million, a winner only gets that amount if they pick the annuity — the money is paid out over 29 years.

The lump sum option, which is more popular, has a cash value of $269.7 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.