San Francisco – A U.S. Powerball jackpot of $359 million awaits players ahead of Wednesday’s drawing as the windfall continues to grow amid weeks of contests where no one took home the biggest prize.
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Wednesday’s drawing will be the 11th largest-ever Powerball jackpot and the 18th largest jackpot in U.S. history, lottery officials said.
The odds of winning are 1 in 292 million.
The jackpot has rolled over twice per week since someone matched all six numbers on Sept. 17.
Powerball is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Players can either buy $2 tickets using their own numbers or have them randomly generated by a computer.
The next drawing is scheduled for 10:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday and the winner would receive $359 million over 30 years or $219.6 million in a lump sum payment, before taxes.
The largest ever lottery prize of $1.6 billion was split between three winning tickets in January.
It is one of several games run by the Multi-State Lottery Association, a non-profit owned and operated by member states’ lotteries.
The Mega Millions lottery, also offered by the association, produced the country’s second-largest-ever prize, worth $656 million, in a 2012 drawing.
For every $1 worth of Powerball sales, half goes to prizes, 40 percent to state governments for causes such as education, and 10 percent to retailers who sell the tickets and other administrative costs.