This jackpot’s one in a million.
The prize for Saturday’s Powerball drawing has soared to a mind-blowing $1.6 billion — the largest in U.S. lotto history, officials said Friday.
The record-shattering astronomical sum comes as the Powerball series hits its 40th consecutive run with no grand prize winner since Aug. 3, increasing the odds of a win, lotto officials said.
Players can buy tickets up until 10 p.m. EST on Saturday and have a 1 in 292 million chance of hitting it big.
Only two other lotto jackpots have ever climbed higher than $1.5 billion in the U.S., including a $1.537 billion Mega Millions prize in 2018 and a $1.586 billion Powerball prize in 2016.
In 2016, the previous highest jackpot ever, the prize was split between ticket holders in California, Florida, and Tennessee.
New York has had an average of 321,144 winners per draw over the past five draws, meaning the total winners for Wednesday’s draw was 71% higher than average — and the odds of winning have gotten better each day since then, according to Powerball.net.
Saturday’s $1.6 billion payout goes to a winner who opts to have the dough paid out annually over 29 years.
By contrast, it’s a $782 million cash prize.
