JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The new Powerball jackpot is soaring past the record for the biggest jackpot in U.S. history.
It hit $800 million on Friday after Wednesday night's drawing was the 18th without a winner. The previous jackpot record was held by a 2012 MegaMillions game worth $656 million.
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The numbers for Wednesday's $500 million jackpot were: 2, 11, 47, 62, 63 with a Powerball of 17.
The current jackpot first climbed to $675 million Wednesday night and reached $700 million before noon on Thursday.
Even with no jackpot winner in Wednesday night’s drawing, Florida Powerball players won big, with more than 591,000 winning tickets totaling more than $6.5 million in prizes. This included two $1 million winners in Fort Lauderdale and Dunedin.
In addition to the large Powerball jackpot prize, players have the opportunity to win lower-tier prizes from $4 up to $2 million by matching any of the non-jackpot-winning combinations. During this jackpot series, more than 1.7 million Florida Powerball winners have won more than $17 million in prizes.
“The excitement is growing tremendously statewide and across the nation for this historic jackpot on Saturday night,” Florida Lottery Secretary Tom Delacenserie said in a news release. ““This Powerball jackpot is not only a life-changing opportunity for any person, but also it has allowed the Lottery to generate over $40 million in revenue for Florida students and schools.”
Victor Floyd, a dedicated Fantasy Five lotto player who has won $500 four separate times, said if lotto players are feeling lucky, they should take his advice.
“You stick to the numbers that you normally play, like birthday or age, stuff like that,” Floyd said.
Another good place to start is the Grand Central Station on Merrill Road. The store is one of the luckiest in the city, and many people came in and out of the gas station Monday as Powerball fever hit Jacksonville.
So what are the odds of winning?
“It's roughly 246 million to 1,” said Jim Linderman, Jacksonville district manager for the Florida Lottery. “So it is long odds, but it only takes that one ticket.”
That means lotto players have a higher chance of becoming president, getting struck by lightning or getting hit by an asteroid than winning the big prize. But Linderman said he's expecting the winner to be a local.
“We actually had two winners in Florida, both for $80 million each -- one in April and one in June, so we're due for another winner,” Linderman said.
Jackpot prizes are paid in 30 annual installments or as a one-time, lump-sum payment. Jackpot prizes must be claimed within 60 days after the draw to receive the cash option of an estimated $496 million. Winners have 180 days from the applicable drawing to claim their prize.
Players can purchase tickets at any of the more than 13,000 Lottery retailers for a chance to become Florida’s eleventh Powerball winner. Tickets must be purchased by 10 p.m. Saturday to be eligible for this week's drawing, but lottery officials encourage players to purchase early to avoid long lines.
Peak sales in Florida for Wednesday's Powerball drawing occurred between 6 p.m .and 7 p.m., when tickets were selling at a rate of more than 25,000 tickets per minute. With an even bigger jackpot up for grabs, officials expect that number to rise the closer it gets to Saturday drawing.
National Powerball drawings are broadcast live, in high-definition, from the Florida Lottery’s state of the art draw studio in Tallahassee at 10:59 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Florida is among the top-selling Powerball states of any U.S. lottery, exceeding more than $3.2 billion in sales, yielding $1.3 billion in education funding to date. Since Powerball launched in Florida in January 2009, the Florida Lottery has had the most winners in the nation, winning more than $1.5 billion in prizes, including 10 jackpot winners.