Today Is a Good Day to Buy a Powerball Ticket

It could be a very merry Christmas week for one lottery player. The Powerball jackpot has swelled to an estimated $1.6 billion for Monday night's drawing, ranking among the largest lottery prizes ever offered in the United States. No one hit all six numbers in Saturday's drawing—4, 5, 28, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 20—which pushed the prize higher, though Forbes notes eight people did manage to win the second-biggest prize of $1 million by matching all five numbers on the white balls but missing the red Powerball number.

Powerball says the pot now represents the fourth-largest jackpot in the game's history and the fifth-largest US jackpot overall, reports CNBC. The all-time US record remains a $2.04 billion Powerball prize claimed in California in 2022; that winner chose a lump sum of about $997.6 million.

For Monday's drawing, the winner will face a familiar choice: take the cash up front or spread it out. The lump-sum option is currently estimated at $735.3 million before taxes. Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. As for your shot at the prize: the odds of matching every number are 1 in 292.2 million.