Powerball is up to $750 million — the fourth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history - The Washington Post

A 2017 Powerball ticket. (Alan Diaz/AP)

March 25 at 6:42 AM

A great man once said to never tell him the odds, but we’re sorry to inform you that the odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338, and nobody beat them this time around.

The Powerball numbers announced after Saturday night’s drawing were 24, 25, 52, 60, 66 and a Powerball of 5. No tickets with that exact combination of numbers was sold, so the pot for the multistate lottery is now an estimated $750 million, swollen with the hopes and dreams of millions who purchase tickets for the biweekly drawings.

The jackpot would be the fourth-largest in U.S. lottery history and the biggest Powerball total so far this year.

In December, David Johnson of Brooklyn bought a winning Powerball ticket, worth $298.3 million.

Last year, a Mega Millions player in South Carolina won a jackpot worth more than $1.5 billion and kept everyone in suspense as the person waited until the last minute to come forward. The person received a one-time payout of $878 million, the largest ever awarded to a single lottery player. (South Carolina law allows winners to remain anonymous.)

While a player must match all six winning numbers to win the grand prize, some Saturday drawing winners matched enough to earn a mere $2 million or $1 million prize.

The lottery overlords know that giant jackpots lure ticket buyers and have tweaked their games in recent years to lower the odds and help the grand prizes climb to tantalizing heights. Hoping to be the next lucky exception, scores will purchase tickets for the next Powerball drawing, which occurs Wednesday.

Never tell us the odds.

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