Powerball draw: US lottery rolls over again to become biggest ever prize

powerball ticket — $675m is up for grabs now that the Powerball lottery has once again rolled over Reuters

The Powerball lottery went unclaimed yet again on Wednesday night (6 January) so the estimated jackpot was hiked from $450m (£308m) to $524m (£359m). The rollover means that the winning draw on Saturday 9 January will now be the largest ever lottery prize in the US.

The jackpot now is estimated to be $675m (£463m), the largest-ever in US history, smashing the previous record – a Mega Millions prize of $656m (£450m) from 2012. Though no one claimed the jackpot on Wednesday, $66m (£45m) worth of prizes were handed out.

Top 5 US lottery Jackpots

1. $675m - Powerball - January 2016

2. $656m - Mega Millions - March 2012

3. $648m - Mega Millions - December 2013

4. $590m - Powerball - May 2013

5. $587m - Powerball - November 2012

The Powerball lottery is played in 44 US States, plus Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and can be watched all over America on the stations listed at this link. If you're in America – you have to be to play – and are interested trying your luck, you'll have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning that top prize, or a 1 in 11,688,053 chance of grabbing a $1m (£684,000) prize.

Winner then have the choice of whether to take a smaller cash lump sum or the larger annuity.

The draw for the largest ever US lottery prize will take place on Saturday (9 January) evening at 22.59 EST (03.59 GMT on Sunday 10 January).