It’s been exactly 12 weeks since a Powerball ticket sold in Pennsylvania won the last big prize. Meanwhile, the jackpot grew quite a bit, and after 35 consecutive rounds without a big prize winner, it stood at about $700 million for Wednesday night’s drawing.
Wednesday’s winning numbers were 19, 36, 37, 46, 56 and a Powerball of 24. It was not yet clear if any winning tickets were sold.
The expected fund is this year’s largest prize so far, according to Powerball, which increased the sum from $680 million earlier this week. It is also the fifth largest Powerball jackpot and the eighth largest in the US lottery.
The weekly Powerball drawings, which take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, have given players partial wins for the past three months. The most recent drawing yielded minor winnings to more than 1.2 million ticket holders, who collectively received $13.7 million in cash prizes, according to the lottery.
There are nine ways to win an amount of money by entering the game, but in order to take home the big prize, Powerball players must have tickets with numbers that match the six chosen during a given drawing. On August 3, a player whose Pennsylvania ticket was a perfect match won the jackpot, which at the time stood at $206.9 million.
This was the fifth largest Powerball prize won in 2022. In January, winners from California and Wisconsin split the $632.6 million jackpot before a Connecticut winner took home the $185.3 million prize of dollars about a month later. In April, an Arizona ticket won $473.1 million, and in June, the $366.7 million jackpot was matched by a lottery ticket sold in Vermont.
Those who eventually claim the next Powerball jackpot have the option of receiving their prize as an immediate lump sum, worth an estimated $335.7 million in cash if someone wins Wednesday, or as an annuity. The latter option offers to pay the full amount of the jackpot over about 30 years.
According to Powerball, the odds of winning any prize after entering the game are slightly less than 1 in 25, while the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million. The next Powerball drawing is scheduled to go live Wednesday night at 10:59 PM ET. Drawings can also be played online at Powerball.com.