LOTTERY: Powerball prize has swelled to an estimated $1.5 billion

LOTTERY: Powerball prize has swelled to an estimated $1.5 billion

Lottery officials say Powerball prize has swelled to an estimated $1.5 billion — the world’s largest.

“We’ve never been at these levels,” said Grief, whose state lottery is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs Powerball.

The odds to win are one in 292.2 million. Seventy-five per cent of all the possible combinations were purchased before Saturday’s drawing, Grief said, and he expects that enough tickets will be sold to cover about 80 per cent by Wednesday. About 95 per cent of Powerball tickets have computer-generated numbers.

“I’ve been in the industry over 20 years, and I’ve seen jackpots hit when we hardly have any of the potential numbers covered — like 5 per cent of the possible combinations covered. And I’ve seen other jackpots when we’ve had 95 per cent of the combinations covered and it rolls,” Grief said.