Powerball prize grows to 900 million dollars

Another US Powerball draw ended Saturday night without a winner, boosting the jackpot to an estimated $900 million.

No ticket for Saturday’s draw matched the winning combination: white balls 2, 9, 43, 55, 57 and red Powerball 18. The jackpot was estimated at $875 million.

Ticket buyers for Monday’s drawing have the chance to win $900 million paid out in annual increments or a one-time payment of $465.1 million before tax.

The top prize is the third largest Powerball jackpot and the seventh largest in US lottery history, Powerball said in a statement early Sunday.

While there was no jackpot winner, Powerball said three tickets matching all five white balls will be eligible for $1 million prizes on Saturday, including two in Texas and one in Colorado.

The jackpot keeps growing until someone wins.

The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that attract more players. The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion in November.

The last time anyone won the Powerball jackpot was on April 19th for a top prize of almost $253 million. Since then, no one has won the top prize in the past 37 consecutive draws.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.