What to know about the $550M Powerball jackpot

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The Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots total $862 million. | AP file photo

March Madness isn’t the only game causing a frenzy this month.

The Powerball jackpot continues to climb after no one matched all six numbers in Saturday’s drawing.

The jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing is now worth an estimated $550 million. According to lottery officials, it’s the eighth largest Powerball prize in history.

The winner can choose to receive the prize in annuity payments or take the lump sum option, which is $335 million before taxes.

Lottery madness swept the nation late last year when the Mega Millions grand prize soared to over $1.537 billion. The sole winner, a woman from South Carolina, anonymously claimed the prize earlier this month.

As big as it was, last year’s Mega Millions wasn’t the biggest lottery jackpot in history. In 2016, ticket holders in three states split a nearly $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot.

Here’s everything you need to know about the latest Powerball drawing:

Powerball numbers

The Powerball numbers from the Saturday, March 16 drawing were 30, 34, 39, 53 and 67, and Powerball 11.

When are Powerball draw days?

Powerball draws occur every Wednesday and Saturday.

What time is the Powerball drawing?

Powerball drawings are at 10:59 p.m. EDT.

Deadline to buy Powerball tickets

Powerball sales end at 9:58 p.m. EDT in Indiana. Check with your local state lottery for cut-off times.

How much do Powerball ticket costs

Powerball tickets are $2 apiece. Tack on the Power Play for $1 and your non-jackpot winnings could be multiplied up to five times. Players can multiply non-jackpot wins up to 10 times when the jackpot is $150 million or less.

How to play Powerball

Select six numbers from two separate pools of numbers. Choose five different numbers ranging from 1 to 69. Then, choose one number from 1 to 26 for the Powerball.

The there are nine ways to win, six of which require the correct Powerball. Players can match three, four or five numbers without the Powerball and also win.

Odds of winning Powerball

Approximately 1 in every 24.87 Powerball tickets sold are winners. The likelihood of winning the jackpot is 1 in 292,201,338.

Read more at usatoday.com.

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