Lottery hopefuls line up for one in 292 million chance

At a Shell gasoline station in Atlanta, the place a dozen or so folks waited in line, the supervisor mentioned he had been doing swift enterprise with tickets all day. It was a scene repeated at lottery brokers from coast to coast as folks clamoured to get in on the motion, hoping to win one of many richest prises ever supplied by a serious US lottery.

The present jackpot ranks because the second-highest within the sport’s historical past behind a $US1.585 billion ($A2.475 billion) high prize in 2016, which was divided amongst three fortunate ticket holders from California, Tennessee and Florida.

If a single ticket holder has the collection of numbers chosen within the drawing on Monday, the winner can selected to obtain both a one-time lump sum of $US497.3 million ($A776.5 million) in money, or multimillion-dollar annuity payouts stretched over 29 years, in line with lottery officers.

The highest prize, which is able to rise even greater if nobody holds the fortunate numbers on Monday, can be the fifth-largest jackpot for all main lotteries in the US.

Winners should guess all six fortunate numbers together with the ultimate Powerball. The percentages of successful the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, lottery officers mentioned.

The final time that somebody received the Powerball jackpot was on August 3, when a ticket holder from Pennsylvania claimed a $US206 million ($A322 million) prize. Since then, 37 consecutive drawings have produced no grand prize winner.

-AAP