Powerball made history on Jan. 11, 2016, the first time a lottery jackpot hit $1 billion. When no one matched all five numbers plus the Powerball in the (Saturday) Jan. 9, 2016, drawing for $949 million, the Monday jackpot soared to $1.4 billion. (No one won that drawing either.)

No one claimed the top prize in the Dec. 13 drawing so the Dec. 15 prize will be more than $1.1 billion, according to the Michigan Lottery.

Whether or not anyone wins the billion-dollar Powerball jackpot on Saturday, at least one of the losers might already be known: Mega Millions.

Whenever a drawing fails to get a winner, the lottery rolls over the winnings until the next drawing. The game’s terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots and ever-larger prizes. There are three drawings each week. The largest jackpot on record, $2.04 billion, was drawn in 2022 and went to a California ticket buyer.

13 Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots have climbed over $1 billion, including the Sept. 6, 2025, Powerball at $1.8 billion. Ohio's largest national lottery win was a $372 Mega Millions jackpot from December 2019. A California resident was the sole winner ...

Lottery players across the region are already imagining how they’d spend the winnings, from travel and charity to family security.