Powerball jackpot climbs to $435 million for Saturday drawing

[June 10, 2017]  (Reuters) - An estimated $435 million Powerball jackpot is up for grabs on Saturday evening after 19 straight drawings failed to produce a winner and pushed the grand prize in the multi-state U.S. lottery to its highest level in months.

The last Powerball drawing to produce a jackpot winner was on April 1, said California Lottery spokesman Mike Bond. California is one of 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that participate in Powerball.

Saturday's jackpot, the eighth largest in Powerball history, falls just short of the $435.3 million won by a ticket buyer in Indiana in a Feb. 22 drawing.

That anonymous winner, described by his spokeswoman as a manufacturing plant worker who graduated from Purdue University, chose the lump-sum cash option of $263.5 million when he came forward in March.

The odds of winning Saturday's grand prize are 1 in 292 million.

Powerball's jackpot hit a record $1.6 billion in January 2016, when three winning tickets were sold in Florida, California and Tennessee.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Patrick Enright and Cynthia Osterman)

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A Powerball sign is pictured at an ampm convenience store in Pasadena, California U.S., November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni