by
CNN
—
The California Lottery announced Monday night that it will delay the Powerball drawing because officials need more time to complete security protocols.
“Powerball has strict security requirements that all 48 lotteries must meet before a drawing can take place,” the California Lottery said. said in a post on social networks
A participating lottery needs additional time to meet those requirements before the draw can take place, according to the publication.
“When the required security protocols are complete, the drawing will be conducted under the supervision of lottery security officials and independent auditors. Winning numbers will be posted as soon as they are available,” the California Lottery said.
The delay to the much-anticipated draw comes as the Powerball lottery jackpot increased to $1.9 billion on Monday, according to the California Lottery, making it the largest lottery prize ever offered, just as its organizers intended. when the odds changed in 2015.
No winning tickets were sold for Saturday’s drawing of an estimated $1.6 billion, which is already the highest lottery prize offered. The latest Powerball jackpot was won on August 3 in Pennsylvania.
That jackpot value is the amount a winner would get if they took 30 graduated annual installments, although a winner can also choose the cash option for a smaller lump sum. For the $1.9 billion jackpot, the winner can choose between receiving 30 equal payments of around $63 million per year or receiving a lump-sum cash value of around $929 million.
The largest Powerball jackpot ever won was in January 2016, when three winners split an advertised prize of $1.586 billion. They each took their share of the cash value, which totaled $983.5 million.
Yes, that means the current “record” jackpot cash value of $1.9 billion is less than the $1.586 billion jackpot cash value six years ago. You can thank the recent Federal Reserve interest rate hikes for that discrepancy.
Powerball drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 pm ET.
Powerball is played for $2 per ticket and has players choose five white balls from numbers 1-69 and one red Powerball from numbers 1-26. If a player matches all six numbers, they win the massive jackpot.
The odds of winning the jackpot by matching all 5 numbers and the Powerball number are one in 292.2 million.
However, prior to 2015, the white balls were numbered 1-59 and the Powerball was numbered 1-35. The change means players now have better odds of winning small prizes but worse odds of winning the jackpot, which which makes it more likely that the large number will grow to record sizes.
“This Powerball game offers exactly what our players want,” Powerball Products Group President Drew Svitko said in a statement ahead of Saturday’s drawing. “We are witnessing history unfold with this $1.6 billion jackpot! What’s also exciting is that this race has already created millions of winners, including nearly 100 players who have won prizes worth $1 million or more.”
