Powerball Lottery Jackpot Rolls over To $359 Million

With a jackpot now estimated at $359 million, the US Powerball lottery prize is the biggest in the world and when the next draw takes place on Wednesday 23rd November, one player could walk away with this massive prize.

The last time the jackpot was claimed was back in September and since then it's rolled over each Wednesday and Saturday to reach the current level. As the headline prize gets progressively bigger, more people are attracted to the game and it tends to grow even faster. Now that people from around the world can enter via sites like TheLotter, Play Huge Lottos and Play USA Lotteries the jackpot could even be won from outside the official states where it's played.

How To Play Powerball

For $2, players pick 5 main numbers from a set of 69 and then a single number from 26. When the draws take place, 5 white balls are taken out of one drum and the red Powerball is taken from a second drum. Matching all numbers wins the jackpot, while matching the main numbers only wins a $1 million prize and just matching the Powerball still brings in a prize of $4.

PowerPlay Option

An extra $1 per play is all it costs to take the PowerPlay option, which sees all except the jackpot multiplied by between 2x and 5x, although the $1 million prizes can only be doubled at the most.

Claiming The Jackpot

The majority of jackpot winners take a cash lump sum, which is subject to US taxes. If it's won on Wednesday, they would take home an estimated $219.6 million once those taxes are paid, but the other option is to take a reduced amount upfront and have the rest paid in installments over the next 29 years, with each increased by 5%.

However they choose to take the money, anyone winning the Powerball lottery this week is going to be extremely rich.