Powerball officials announced early Sunday morning that there were no winners of a $949.8 million jackpot. With no winner, the jackpot for this Wednesday’s drawing will be a world record $1.3 billion.
Since November 4th, the Powerball jackpot has grown from its $40 million starting point and shattered records as no one has won the jackpot. Such a massive jackpot was just what officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, hoped for last fall when they changed the odds of matching all the Powerball numbers, from about one in 175 million to one in 292.2 million. By making it harder to win a jackpot, the tougher odds made the ever-larger prizes inevitable.
The numbers picked in Saturday’s drawing were 16, 19, 32, 34, 57, and Powerball number 13, the Multi-State Lottery Association announced.
When the jackpot passed the $700 million mark last week, it shattered the previous U.S. lottery record, which had been a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012.