US lottery officials say the estimated $US1.3 billion ($A1.87 billion) prize for the next Powerball drawing is the largest jackpot ever in the world.
No one matched all six Powerball numbers on Saturday night, leading to the astronomical prize, which is all but certain to grow before the next drawing Wednesday as more people buy tickets, said Kelly Cripe with the Texas Lottery.
"Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed," Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief said.
"We've never been at these levels," said Grief, whose state lottery is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs Powerball.
The jackpot is so big that billboards in Texas and around the country have to advertise the price as $999 million because they're not built to show billions. The lottery computers will handle the decimal point without a problem.
The odds to win are one in 292.2 million. Seventy-five per cent of all the possible combinations were purchased before Saturday's drawing, Grief said, and he expects that enough tickets will be sold to cover about 80 per cent by Wednesday. About 95 per cent of Powerball tickets have computer-generated numbers.
The jackpot has ballooned since its November 4 starting point of $40 million.
