Powerball fever is in the air and Marylanders can purchase a ticket for tonight’s drawing until 9:59 p.m. This morning, the jackpot bumped up to an estimated annuity value of $1.4 billion with an estimated cash option of $634.3 million.
This is the fourth-largest jackpot since the inception of Powerball in 1992, and the sixth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.
How much is 1.4 billion? Here’s a little perspective:
- The distance from Earth to the sun is 93 million miles and it would take about 15 trips to reach 1.4 billion miles.
- It has been nearly 1.4 billion seconds since 1981.
- At $32 million, the Rolls Royce La Rose Noire Droptail is considered one of the most expensive cars ever built. Theoretically you could buy 43 of them with $1.4 billion (and have a little left over), but only four of them were produced. If you bought all four, you’d still have $1.27 billion left — enough to buy 318 Aston Martin Valkyrie Spiders at $4 million each.
- A dollar bill is a little longer than 6 inches, so 1.4 billion dollar bills end to end would be about 700 million feet, or 132,576 miles. The Earth is 24,901 miles around the equator, so 1.4 billion dollar bills end to end would circle the Earth a little more than five times.
- Each dollar bill weighs 1 gram, which means 1.4 billion dollar bills would weigh nearly 3.1 million pounds.
Powerball tickets are $2, with drawings held Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights. The jackpot has been rolling since it was last hit on May 31 at an annuity value of $204.5 million on a ticket sold in California. Wednesday night will be the 41st drawing of the current jackpot roll. The longest jackpot roll in Powerball history was 42 drawings, which ended in April of 2024 when a $1.362 billion jackpot was won a ticket sold in Oregon.
While no one has hit the jackpot, Powerball has made many Maryland winners along the way. Since May 31, Powerball players in Maryland have won more than $10.1 million in prizes. There have been 27 Powerball tickets sold in Maryland that have won prizes of $50,000 or more, including two $1 million winners and three $500,000 Double Play winners. Earlier this week, we had a $150,000-winning Powerball ticket sold in Swanton in Garrett County. There is also an unclaimed $100,000 winner from Oxon Hill and unclaimed $50,000 winners from Mechanicsville, Gaithersburg, Severn, Stevensville, College Park, Elkridge and Forestville.
The last time a Maryland player won the Powerball jackpot was on Jan. 20, 2021. The $731.1 million ticket was sold at Coney Market in the Allegany County community of Lonaconing. The prize was claimed by an anonymous winner.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Both the Powerball and Double Play drawings have nine different prize tiers, with Powerball ranging from $4 up to the jackpot and Double Play ranging from $7 up to $10 million.
Winners are encouraged to sign the backs of tickets and keep winning tickets in a safe location. Tickets for draw games expire 182 days after the drawing date.
Winners of prizes larger than $25,000 must redeem tickets at the Maryland Lottery Customer Resource Center in Baltimore, which is open by appointment only. Prizes up to $25,000 can be claimed at the cashier window of any of the six casinos in Maryland. Prizes up to $5,000 can be claimed at any of more than 400 Expanded Cashing Authority Program (XCAP) locations. All Maryland Lottery retailers are authorized to redeem tickets worth up to and including $600. More information is available on the How to Claim page of the Lottery website.
