Tonight, the Powerball jackpot has surpassed $1 BILLION for only the third time in history – Mega Millions hits $720 million, pushing the total payout to the fifth-highest amount ever

Excitement mounts for Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing after the multi-state lottery’s jackpot hit $1 billion for the third time in history.

The whopping Powerball payout and a whopping $720 million Mega Millions jackpot has resulted in skyrocketing ticket sales at convenience stores and gas stations across the country.

It’s only the fifth time jackpots from both drawings have surpassed the $500 million mark at the same time, and the total payout of $1.72 billion is the fifth-highest in history, according to data provided to Lottery Critic DailyMail.com has provided.

Although the huge jackpots inspire feverish dreams of wild riches, experts warn against gambling responsibly and point out that buying more than one ticket does little to increase the chances of winning.

For example, if you buy a $2 Powerball ticket, you have a 1 in 292.2 million chance of hitting the jackpot, but if you spend $20 on 10 tickets, your chances increase to just 10 in 292.2 million – the odds remain extremely low.

Experts warn that the odds for the two major lotteries are so high that it is certainly not worth spending the missing money on additional tickets.

If a winning ticket is sold, Wednesday’s Powerball drawing jackpot would be the seventh-highest in U.S. history and the game’s third-biggest at $1 billion.

If just one player matches all five numbers plus the Powerball number drawn, they have the opportunity to win the $1 billion prize, paid out in annual increments over 29 years, or a one-time pre-tax lump sum of $516.8 million.

Lottery Critic offers a calculator to estimate the lump sum payout amount and possible tax liability for Powerball jackpots and other lotteries.

The last time anyone won the Powerball jackpot was on April 19 when a ticket sold in Macedonia, Ohio won a top prize of nearly $253 million. This ticket has yet to be requested.

The last MegaMillions winner was a day earlier, on April 18, when a $20 million winning ticket was sold to a person who claimed it anonymously in Syracuse, New York.

Since then, no one has won the grand prize in any of the lotteries. The jackpots will keep growing until someone wins.

The Mega Millions jackpot soared to $720 million after Tuesday’s drawing went flat, making it the fifth-highest payout in lottery history.

Lottery jackpots have only gotten bigger in recent years after changes have been made that have increased the odds and made winning more difficult.

In 2015, the Powerball lottery increased the odds of winning from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million.

Mega Millions followed two years later, increasing the odds of winning the grand prize from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million.

The largest lottery payout in US history was a whopping $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot, hit on November 8, 2022, with the winning ticket being sold in California.

The biggest Mega Millions jackpot was $1.537 billion and was won by an anonymous player in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.

If your Powerball ticket is Wednesday’s winner, the first step, experts say, is to put it in a safe place, like a fireproof safe or a safe deposit box.

Then you should start putting together your “team,” Shean Fletcher, a wealth consultant in Kansas City, Missouri, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

This will likely include your closest and most trusted family members, as well as a financial advisor, lawyer and accountant.

You can then make plans about how you will receive the prize and what you will do with the money.

“After the initial excitement, you should take a deep breath and take it easy,” Fletcher said.

Some states allow lottery winners to claim jackpots anonymously, while others have loopholes that allow winners to protect their identities with an LLC.

Another thing to keep in mind is that big jackpots come with heavy tax burdens, Fletcher said.

Not only the money itself, but also expensive houses, cars, planes and other real estate usually come with high recurring tax and alimony bills.

The notion that lottery winners can spend big every day and forever is a fallacy that has led to more than one lottery winner gambling away, Fletcher said.

“By far the biggest misconception that we hear or read and see is that money seems to be infinite when that’s certainly not the case,” Fletcher said.