DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The numbers have been drawn for an estimated $747 million Powerball jackpot and players must now wait to learn whether there is a big winner.
The numbers drawn late Monday night were 05, 11, 22, 23, 69 and the Powerball 07.
No one has won the jackpot since Nov. 19, 2022, allowing the prize to grow larger with each of the game’s three weekly drawings. It now stands as the ninth-largest in U.S. history.
Lottery officials normally take hours before announcing whether there has been a winning ticket sold.
The $747 million jackpot is for winners who opt for an annuity paid over 29 years. Higher interest rates have allowed those annuity payments to increase compared with earlier jackpots, when rates were lower.
Most winners prefer cash, which for Monday night’s drawing would be $403.1 million.
The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes drawing more players. That strategy certainly has worked recently, as someone in Maine won a $1.35 billion Mega Millions prize in January and a California player hit a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot last November. No one has claimed either of those prizes.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.