With no one able to guess the right six numbers in the previous 39 draws, the jackpot has only grown.
If no one wins the $1.6 billion up for grabs Saturday, the record for the most consecutive Powerball draws without a jackpot win will be tied, the company said in a statement.
The amount already surpasses that of the biggest win ever. In 2016, several lucky winners took home a record $1.586 billion, which was dubbed the ‘jackpot of the century’ at the time.
The odds of winning this amount are only one in 292.2 million anyway. For comparison, the chance of being struck by lightning is one in a million, according to data from US health authorities.
The jackpot represents what the lucky winner would get if he or she agreed to pay in 30 instalments, over 29 years. If the winner chooses to receive the prize all at once, they will be paid $782.4 million. Whatever the winner chooses, a portion of the prize money will of course be withheld by taxes.
