Over the past few years, huge lottery jackpots have become more common as lottery officials have changed the rules and ticket prices to boost top prizes.
WASHINGTON — Powerball’s jackpot is up to an estimated $404 million after nobody won Wednesday’s $360 million jackpot.
Wednesday’s winning numbers were 4-8-46-47-48, Powerball 5 and Power Play 3. The next drawing is Friday.
Powerball isn’t the only tantalizing lottery game this week. The Mega Millions jackpot has more than $1 billion on the line for Friday’s drawing and hasn’t seen a winner in more than two months.
The last Powerball jackpot win was in mid-November. In early November, a single ticket bought in California won a record-breaking $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot .
Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are slim — one in 292.2 million.
Over the past few years, huge lottery jackpots have become more common as lottery officials have changed the rules and ticket prices to boost top prizes.
In 2021, the lottery game saw its biggest change as Powerball officials added a Monday drawing to its weekly lineup of Wednesday and Saturday evening drawings. At the time of the announcement, Powerball proclaimed the addition of the Monday drawing would lead to “larger, faster-growing jackpots.”
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
What are the largest US lottery jackpots ever won?
1. $2.04 billion, Powerball, Nov. 8, 2022 (one ticket, from California)
2. $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
3. $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
4. $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
5. $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
6. $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
7. $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
8. $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
9. $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
10. $687.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 27, 2018 (two tickets, from Iowa and New York)