powerball lottery ticket
The sixth-biggest jackpot in US history could be claimed on Wednesday night Getty

Wednesday night (6 January) sees the draw for the sixth-biggest Powerball jackpot ever. The jackpot for America's biggest lottery has made it up to $450m (£307m).

The largest ever was a Mega Millions jackpot of $656m (£448m) back in 2012; the largest Powerball being $590.5 (£404m) in 2013. Though Wednesday's draw is huge, it's not even the biggest of the last 12 months – a $564m (£386m) jackpot was won in February 2015. If no one wins on Wedneday, that $450m could keep growing.

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

If you happen to win (firstly, congrats) then you'll get the choice between taking a lump sum cash prize or having the larger prize paid to you in instalments. If you pick the lump sum then the prize is somewhat smaller but the instalments wouldn't finish paying out for another 29 years.

Tune in Wednesday night to see five white balls and one red ball get picked at 22.59 Eastern Standard Time (03.59 GMT on Thursday 7 January).

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