Powerball fever has struck again, as the lottery jackpot has climbed to more than $400 million for Wednesday's drawing.
Just two months ago the Mega Million games produced a record jackpot of $648-million. The Powerball had a $400-million jackpot five months ago,
the Los Angeles Times noted.
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ing numbers are picked, it will mark the first big-dollar lottery winner or winners of 2014.
Since California joined the Powerball game last spring and changed ticket prices to $2 from $1, enormous jackpots have followed. Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Just last year,
according to USA Today, Powerball awarded its biggest single winner before taxes: a Florida woman who walked away with $590 million. Meanwhile, multiple winners shared a $448 million prize last summer.
Then in December, a $636-million prize was split between two winning tickets that were purchased in San Jose, Calif., and Atlanta.
Chances of winning Wednesday's drawing are 1 in 175 million, the Multi-State Lottery Association told the Los Angeles Times.
Many lottery winners have found themselves losing their millions nearly as quickly, as they fail to hire a financial adviser or accountant to safeguard their wealth.
"When you look at $100 million, you think that well will never run dry,"
Mark DiGiovanni, a certified financial planner in Atlanta, told CBS News. "If you have $100 million and lose it, that's probably worse than having never won at all."
A single winner of the $400 million who takes a lump sum payout would end up with about $230 million. If the winner decided on the quick cash grab, accounting for taxes, he or she could still have more than $100 million to enjoy.
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