Powerball jackpot hits $400 million ahead of Saturday’s draw

The Powerball jackpot has reached around $400 million, as the game marks 30 years of draws.

The first draw for the American lottery game was held on April 22, 1992, with tickets selling for $1. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia initially participated. A winning ticket from that first draw was sold in Indiana for the jackpot of $5.9 million (about $12 million today).

The next draw will take place on Saturday and has a cash value of $240.8 million, after 28 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner. Tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 states, as well as DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Since the launch of the Powerball, 393 jackpot-winning tickets have been sold, totaling $25 billion in prizes. The most recent jackpot was won in the February 14 draw, with a ticket sold in Connecticut winning $185.3 million.

The jackpot has been hit one more time so far this year. Two tickets sold in California and Wisconsin in the Jan. 5 draw shared the $632.6 million prize, the seventh-largest jackpot in Powerball history.

The biggest Powerball jackpot was a world record $1.586 billion in January 2016.

The odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9, while the jackpot odds are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.

In 30 years, there have been more than a billion laureates in total. The game has also raised $27 billion for public services and lottery-supported causes, such as education, veterans, seniors, and environmental conservation.

Jackpot winners can choose to receive their prize as an annuity, paid in 30 installments over 29 years, or as a lump sum.