'World's Largest Lottery': $1.4 Billion Powerball Continues to Climb

Lottery fever is taking the nation by storm, and California is not immune.

That’s because– as if you haven’t heard– people now have more than a billion reasons to get excited. As of Monday morning, the jackpot for Wednesday’s Powerball is now estimated at $1.4 billion, and counting.

“Sales are doing really well,” California Lottery Spokesman Russ Lopez told Patch by telephone. “As of 9 a.m. , we’ve sold $1.8 million in tickets just today.”

Lopez says another $14.684 million in tickets were sold on Sunday, a day after Saturday’s Powerball game ended with no jackpot winners.

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• Powerball Winning Numbers For $949 Million Jackpot, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016

Saturday’s Powerball drawing came and went after much anticipation. The winning numbers were 16-19-32-34-57 and Powerball 13, however there were no winners for the near $950 million jackpot.

The jackpot has now soared past the billion dollar mark after it started at a humble $40 million on Nov. 4. The cash payout for the prize would be about $868 million. That drawing will be held Wednesday, Jan. 13.

The jackpot will be nearly double a 2012 Mega Millions jackpot of $656 million that had been the record for the largest lotto jackpot in U.S. history.

While no one claimed the grand prize, several winning tickets worth $1 million, an amount that is won by matching five of the winning numbers except for the Powerball, were sold across the United States.

WORLD’S LARGEST LOTTERY

“We’re calling it the world’s largest lottery at this point,” Lopez says.

According to the representative, though the Spanish ‘El Gordo’ famously offers up billions of dollars in prizes, that game works differently in that no single person gets the entire jackpot.

“This is the largest game where you can win $1.4 billion with a single ticket,” according to Lopez.

And the $1.4 billion likely won’t be the final jackpot prize.

Asked if he thinks the jackpot will continue to rise, Lopez says, “I will not be surprised.”

Though the thought of winning of this massive jackpot can be exhilarating, Lopez also reminds anyone who plays to do so responsibly.

“I know it gets crazy ... please play responsibly; play within your means, within your budget.”

HOW TO WIN POWERBALL:

The odds of winning the big prize are 1 in 292,201,338, according to MarketWatch. The service points out that the chances of being struck by lightning in any given year are 1 in 700,000.

According to the official Powerball website, the jackpot is won by matching all five white balls, in any order, and the red Powerball. But if you miss that coveted Powerball, you can still win a cool million dollars.

Here’s more:

Any time you match the red Powerball, you win a prize. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are approximately 1 in 25. Players win a prize by matching one of the 9 Ways to Win.

– Patch Editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.