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The drawing is
scheduled for 10:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0359 GMT on Thursday).
The winner will get annual payments over 29 years, totaling $403
million, or $243.9 million in a lump sum payment, before taxes.
The last time a winning ticket in the jackpot was sold was on
Dec. 17. The odds of winning the jackpot is 1 in 292,201,338
Powerball's jackpot swelled to a record $1.6 billion in January
2016, when three winning tickets were sold in Florida,
California, and Tennessee. The game and a second major U.S.
lottery, Mega Millions, have exceeded $400 million only a few
other times.
Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, as well as Washington,
D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Players can buy
the $2 tickets with their own numbers or have the numbers
randomly generated by a computer.
Half of Powerball sales goes to prizes, 40 percent to state
governments for items such as education and 10 percent to
retailers who sell the tickets and for other administrative
costs.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, edting by Larry
King)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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