Powerball lottery jackpot at $570M for Saturday drawing

Don't feel too bad about losing the Mega Millions drawing because you could win more money in Saturday night's $570 million Powerball jackpot.

If the winner or winners opt for the cash option, it would be $358.5 million.

"I have two grown children and two grandchildren and i would certainly divvy it up," said lottery player Rita Castanon.

This Powerball jackpot is one of the largest in U.S. history. The odds of winning the Powerball are one in 292.2 million.

Meet the lucky winners of the largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history

THE 10 HIGHEST US LOTTERY JACKPOTS

The Powerball jackpot in America may be the largest in the world, but there are also large jackpots elsewhere. Spain's massively popular Christmas lottery, known as "El Gordo," is ranked as the world's richest, though it doles out a single jackpot among millions of prizes, instead of one large jackpot like the Powerball. El Gordo last month showered 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) across the country.

As for the U.S., here's a look at the 10 previous highest jackpots and where the winners were from:

1. $656.0 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (three tickets from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland)

2. $636 million, Mega Millions, Dec. 17, 2013, (two tickets, from California and Georgia)

3. $590.5 million, Powerball, May 18, 2013 (one ticket from Florida)

4. $587.5 million, Powerball, Nov. 28, 2012 (two tickets from Arizona and Missouri)

5. $564.1 million, Powerball, Feb. 11, 2015 (three tickets, from North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas)

6. $450 million, Mega Millions, Jan. 5, 2018, (one ticket from Florida)

7. $448.4 million, Powerball, Aug. 7, 2013, (three tickets, one from Minnesota and two from New Jersey)

8. $425.3 million, Powerball, Feb. 19, 2014 (one ticket from California)

9. $414 million, Mega Millions, March 18, 2014, (two tickets from Florida and Maryland)

10. $399.4 million, Powerball, Sept. 18, 2013, (one ticket from South Carolina)

PAYMENT OPTIONS

The prize is based on an annuity, which would pay out the money over 29 years. Or you can take the lump sum cash payment at once, but you'd have to pay the tax.

THE ODDS? NOT GOOD.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 : 292,201,338. For some comparison, your chance of being struck by lightning in a year is about one in 960,000. But as lottery officials often note, you have no chance of winning if you don't buy a ticket.

POOLING YOUR MONEY

Some players feel they increase their odds of winning by pooling their money with co-workers, with a promise to split the winnings. Joining with colleagues and friends can increase the fun of playing, but the odds of winning are so tiny that adding 50 or 100 chances doesn't matter much. Lottery officials recommend that if people pool their money, they put down rules in writing for splitting the prize, as it's easy for misunderstandings to crop up when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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