If there isn’t a grand prize winner on Monday night, players will get another chance at the ever-growing prize on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
WASHINGTON — Powerball’s jackpot ascended closer to half a billion dollars after remaining winless for weeks.
Monday’s prize is $480 million — $242.2 million if the winner chooses the more popular cash option. The winning Powerball numbers for Monday were 19-30-36-46-60 with the Powerball 25 and Power Play 3.
Players must match all five numbers and the Powerball to win the grand prize. The odds of that happening are slim with less than 1 in 292 million.
Despite the narrow odds of winning the grand prize, the shot at becoming a millionaire isn’t out of the question. After Saturday’s drawing, a couple people woke up as millionaires after two tickets matched the five numbers. The winning million-dollar tickets were bought in Texas and Ohio.
If there isn’t a grand prize winner on Monday night, players will get another chance at the ever-growing prize on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
On Friday, two players won the $494 million Mega Millions, after matching all five numbers and the Mega ball. It was the second largest Mega Millions prize this year.
However, it was this summer’s near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot that sent Americans in a lottery frenzy in July until a winner in Illinois took home the grand prize. Two people came forward last month to claim that prize, but they chose to stay anonymous.
Powerball still holds the world record for largest jackpot with a whopping $1.586 billion prize won in 2016. That prize was shared by winners in Tennessee, Florida and California.
Powerball’s current $480 million jackpot would need to remain winless for a while before it reached any record status.
Here’s a look at the biggest U.S. jackpots ever, according to the Associated Press:
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
- $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
- $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
- $687.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 27, 2018 (two tickets, from Iowa and New York)
- $656 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (three tickets, from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland)
