Powerball prize up to $1.5 billion, could grow

The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number are about 1 in 293 million, according to the Powerball website.

“If you legally purchase a Powerball ticket, you can play the game and you can collect prizes”.

Some 150 million Powerball tickets have been sold in California, said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the California Lottery.

The ticket was sold in Chino Hills, the lottery announced on Twitter. The identity of the victor is not yet known.

“I just hope someone wins tonight”, sighed one employee at a Shell station in Naples, after ringing up another batch of tickets. If so, you may want to reconsider that ticket because your odds of winning aren’t very good.

Meanwhile, a lottery official in Texas said that 85.8 percent of possible number combinations have been selected ahead of the drawing.

The Powerball jackpot is staying at a whopping $1.5 billion for Wednesday night’s drawing, but it is expected to surge to over $2 billion if there is no victor, Massachusetts State Lottery officials said.

The numbers drawn last Saturday were 16, 19, 32, 34 and 57, with the Powerball number 13. The roll has created one $1 million victor, 49 $50,000 winners and four $100,000 winners.

Canadians have surged across the border to play the lottery while others implored USA friends to buy a ticket for them, local media reported.

Hours before Wednesday’s drawing, long lines could be seen at lottery headquarters in Roseville.

A single victor could choose between an annuity paying $1.5 billion over 30 years or a lump sum of $930 million. Every year, about $2 billion in lottery prizes go unclaimed.

With no winning tickets since early November, the Powerball jackpot had increased from $40 million to record-breaking amounts.

The winning Powerball numbers will also be posted here on Starpulse immediately after the drawing if you miss the drawing.

The “immoral articles law” states that “any lottery ticket, or any printed paper that may be used as a lottery ticket, or any advertisement of any lottery” is prohibited from being brought into the United States from any foreign country.