The Powerball jackpot is currently at its highest level of 2017.
This statistic is less impressive when you consider that no one has yet to claim the Powerball jackpot in the new year since the last winner drawn by the lottery system won the big prize back on Dec. 17.
However, there is still a large sum waiting for one lucky winner that has only been eclipsed nine times over Powerball’s history. Before Wednesday’s drawing, the jackpot reached a stunning $403 million, and it remains to be seen whether or not someone will claim the prize by day’s end.
The drawing will take place at 10:59 p.m. ET today, and if there is a winner, he or she will have two options on how to claim the prize. The annual installments option will net the winner payments every year for 29 years that will ultimately add up to $403 million.
The second option is to take the lump sum total, which is $243.9 million that can be claimed all at once, before taxes. The most recent Powerball jackpot of this sum came last November, when the prize amounted to $420 million.
A single winner of this figure came about in July, when a New Hampshire player won a $478 million grand prize, which was the fifth-highest jackpot in the game’s history.
However, the largest Powerball jackpot ever won took place in January 2016 when three winners split a $1.6 billion sum.
