Powerball jackpot up to $1.9 billion

Millions of lottery players around the country will try their luck again Monday night as they vie for an estimated $1.9 billion Powerball jackpot that dwarfs all previous prizes by hundreds of millions of dollars. The jackpot is nearly $400 million larger than the previous record jackpot and will keep growing until someone wins the prize. Only four previous jackpots have topped $1 billion, but none of those are close to the current prize, which started at $20 million back on Aug. 6 and over three winless months has grown ever more massive. A winner who opts for a lump sum payment would get an estimated $929.1 million, with the $1.9 billion for a winner who chose an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Even as more people attracted by the giant prize drop $2 on a Powerball ticket, the game's ultra-long odds of 1 in 292.2 million means there still is a good chance that another drawing will pass without anyone winning the grand prize. That would push the jackpot for Wednesday's drawing to more than $2 billion. READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nat...