Powerball Jackpot Rising To $375 million For Wednesday

No one hit the Powerball jackpot Saturday. That means it rises to $375 million for the Wednesday, June 7 drawing. The jackpot for Saturday's drawing was $337 million.

Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. The record in the game was a $1.6 billion drawing in January 2016, which was won by a group of Tennessee workers. And nearly three months ago, on Feb. 22, a lucky player in Indiana won the $435 Powerball jackpot, the 10th largest in the game's history.

The jackpot is tiny when compared with the January 2016 record Powerball jackpot, which was worth nearly $1.6 billion. The billion-dollar-plus prize won in the Jan. 13, 2016, drawing was the largest lotto jackpot awarded in U.S. history and was split by three winners. In the summer of 2016, a New Hampshire player won a $478 million prize. This past Saturday's jackpot only tied for the 15th largest of all time.

But Americans will still drop by the nearest convenience store with dreams of cash and buy a ticket.

Connecticut Lottery officials began urging players to play responsibly as the jackpot rose.

“When jackpots reach hundreds of millions of dollars, we encourage people to use their ‘GameSense,’ or common sense, when playing,” said CT Lottery’s Interim President and CEO, Chelsea Turner, in a press release May 31. “It is important for consumers to use good judgement and to remember to ‘play for fun, not to make money,’ ‘know when to take breaks’ and ‘please play responsibly.’ It only takes one ticket to win.”

Each ticket costs $2.

If you still want to take a chance — someone has to win, right? — you have a better chance of hitting the jackpot if you let the computer pick your numbers. The Multi-State Lottery Association, which operates the Powerball game, says about 75 percent of winning tickets are selected when the numbers are chosen by a computer.

The lottery game is played in 44 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball draws can be seen on hundreds of TV stations nationwide. It may also be available on cable or your mobile device. The draws are also posted on YouTube and on our site.

Where to watch the Powerball drawing on TV.

By Deb Belt and Ryan Bonner. Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.

Patch file photo