$1.4 billion Powerball jackpot on the line for Saturday night's drawing
Californians have another chance to get filthy rich Saturday evening, with the multi-state Powerball jackpot at $1.4 billion, the fifth- largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
The last time someone won the grand prize in the Powerball game was July 19, when a ticket with all six numbers worth $1.08 billion was sold at a downtown Los Angeles mini-market.
There have been 31 drawings since then with no jackpot winner, including Wednesday's.
The winning numbers are: 47, 54, 57, 60, 65 and the Powerball number is 19.
The jackpot is the third-largest in the history of the game which began in 1992. There have been two Mega Millions drawings with larger jackpots.
Buying tickets at a store where tickets with large jackpots have been sold in the past will not increase a purchaser's chance of winning a jackpot, according to USC mathematics professor Ken Alexander.
"The chance that a given place will sell a winning lottery ticket is just related to how many tickets they sell," Alexander told City News Service.
However, players wanting a better chance of avoiding sharing the jackpot should choose numbers that aren't selected as often, Alexander said. Lottery players frequently choose the date of their birthdays as one of their numbers, so numbers higher than 31 would be played less, Alexander said.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number are 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
