Powerball jackpot climbs to $700M

No one won the Powerball drawing on Wednesday night. That means the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $700 million.

The cash option would be $316.3 million before taxes, according to the Powerball website.

The next drawing is Saturday night at 10:59 p.m. ET.

There have been four Powerball jackpot winners this year, the last was the $204.5 million jackpot on May 31 won by a person in California, USA Today reported.

Powerball costs $2 per play with an option of selecting a Power Play for an extra $1. In two states, Idaho and Montana, the Power Play is not optional, with each game costing $3.

Power Play will multiply your non-jackpot winnings by two, three, four, five or 10 times, with the 10x multiplier only in play when the jackpot annuity is $150 million or less.

You can pick five numbers from 1 to 69 and one Powerball number from 1 to 26. Either you can select them yourself or have the computer pick them at random for you.

Then you decide if you want an annuity or a single cash payment.

If you choose an annuity, you will get 30 payments over 29 years. The cash option is a lump sum. Either way, you will have to pay both federal and in most cases, state taxes on the winnings.

Mandatory federal tax withholding is 24% of the winnings, according to Forbes. There is also a federal marginal rate as high as 37% depending on the winner’s taxable income.

The amount of state taxes you’ll have to pay depends on where you live. Good news if you’re in Texas, Florida and California, they don’t tax lottery winnings, according to Forbes.

Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The only states that do not participate are Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, and Alabama

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.00.

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