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Powerball Pot At Record $800 Million — And Growing

By Laura Wagner
Published January 8, 2016 at 3:08 PM EST
Forty-four states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, participate in the Powerball lottery.
Tony Dejak
/
AP
Forty-four states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, participate in the Powerball lottery.

The Powerball lottery was at a record high of $800 million on Friday, and the jackpot could get far richer.

Before the next drawing on Saturday night, experts say the Powerball could top $1 billion.

"We could be on the verge of creating the first lottery billionaire," Gordon Medenica, director of the Maryland Lottery, told The Washington Post.

The odds of winning this pot, which so far comes out to $496 million before taxes, are 1 in 292 million.

The previous lottery record was a $656 million Mega Millions payout in 2012, according to CNN Money.

The televised drawings for Powerball are held every Wednesday and Saturday nights at 10:59 p.m. ET. After no one claimed the winning numbers on Wednesday, ticket sales soared.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Laura Wagner
See stories by Laura Wagner