The Powerball jackpot is expected to reach $1.3 billion by the next drawing on Sept. 3, easily placing it in the Top 10 winnings for a U.S. lottery.
The cash value of claiming the winning ticket is an estimated $589 million, before taxes that is. Tickets are available at more than 4,000 lottery retailer locations around South Carolina.
The largest lottery jackpot won in South Carolina was $1.54 billion, which came from an October 2018 Mega Millions ticket sold at a KC Mart in Simpsonville, Greenville County. The winner, who chose to remain anonymous, collected a one-time cash payment of $878 million. It was the second-largest U.S. lottery jackpot at the time and remains the fifth largest of all time.
The current estimated jackpot ranks as the ninth largest in U.S. history (including Mega Millions) and the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot ever.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
Matching all five balls along with the Powerball wins the grand prize, which can be split if more than one ticket matches the winning combination. A number of other prizes can be claimed, such as matching all five white balls but not the Powerball to win $1 million.
In the Sept. 1 drawing, 10 tickets matched all five white balls. Two additional tickets matching the five white balls also included the Power Play, which increased their winnings to $2 million.
Powerball tickets cost $2 per play, with the Power Play option adding an additional dollar.
The S.C. Education Lottery was established in 2002. In the years since, more than $8 billion in lottery proceeds have been transferred to the General Assembly to use for education programs. The money covers higher education scholarships, needs-based grants, tuition assistance, National Guard Loan Repayment program and educational programs for K-12 students.
