Anticipation grows in Kentucky for $1.3B Powerball draw

LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Excitement continues to build ahead of Wednesday night’s $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot drawing.

It is the fifth-largest jackpot in Powerball history.

The last winning jackpot was, at the time of writing, 95 days ago on May 31. That’s 41 Powerball drawings without a grand prize winner.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but lottery officials say this is an extremely exciting time.

Not just because someone could walk home with a life-changing amount of money, but because money generated from the lottery and you buying tickets goes right back to Kentucky students in the form of scholarships and grants.

While the lottery is supposed to be fun, lotto officials are encouraging everyone to play responsibly.

“We always want people to play responsibly,” said Kentucky Lottery President & CEO Mary Harville. “Don’t spend more than you can afford, and if you feel like you aren’t having fun, if it becomes a problem, you can call 1-800-Gambler. It has a feature to talk, text, chat, and get the help you need because we want it to be fun.”

As we know, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are slim: 1 in more than 292 million.

Just getting the five white balls is a little more than a 1 in 11 million shot, but 10 tickets across the U.S. matched all five white balls, winning $1 million each during Monday’s drawing.

Since 1992, when the Powerball started, there have been 418 jackpot winners.

Kentucky has the 5th most jackpot winners of any state, with 19, a little less than 5% of all jackpots.

We’ve all fantasized about what we would do if we won the lottery, and while that dreaming is all well and good, if you do win, lottery officials say you need a plan.

Immediately after you win, Harville says the first thing you should do is not claim your ticket right away, until you develop your financial strategy.

That strategy should include hiring a wealth management advisor as well as an attorney who specializes in this sort of thing. People who you can trust who’ll help you make sure your money lasts for a long time, especially since you’d be entering a new tax bracket.

Next, Harville says you should keep your winning to yourself and don’t tell anyone outside a select trusted few; more on that in a moment.

The final step should be a no-brainer but is important nevertheless: don’t lose the ticket! Because you’ll need it to claim your prize.

Because of the rarity of a jackpot getting this high, there is certainly an increased interest.

“It’s been over a year since we’ve even seen a jackpot this high,” Harville detailed. “By this high, I mean it gets past $600 million, and we start to see that kind of interest.”

“There have only been six jackpots that have been above the billion-dollar mark,” said Kentucky Lottery CFO Maggie Garrison. “So, if you think of how long the Kentucky Lottery has been selling tickets and Powerball has been around, this is a big deal to be one of the top six. So that’s why there’s so much excitement and buzz around it.”

Circling back to why you should keep the knowledge of you winning to yourself, while in some states you can remain anonymous if you win the jackpot, Kentucky doesn’t have any such laws for that right.

Harville says they’ll do everything they can to keep you safe and your identity unknown, but says “that would be pretty much impossible.”

Wednesday’s Powerball drawing is at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time.