$400 million up for grabs in US Powerball drawing

The US Powerball jackpot drawing on Wednesday is worth an estimated $400 million, the fourth-largest prize in the lottery's history and the fifth-largest of any US lottery, the Multi-State Lottery Association said.

The jackpot has soared since Saturday, when no one won the $317 million top prize.

Powerball prizes are getting larger, in part because the ticket price rose to $2 from $1 in January, and because California, the most populous state, joined in April.

Ariel Hassman, 35, from Venice, California, said she did not know the exact cost of a Powerball ticket when she walked up to a gas station counter on Wednesday to make her purchase.

"I splurged on a Powerball ticket not realizing they are $2 now, and when the clerk saw I was down to my last dollar he gave me the difference," she said.

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If Hassman's ticket turns out to be a winner, she vowed to split the money 50-50 with the clerk.

Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington and the US Virgin Islands. Chances of winning the big prize, regardless of how many tickets a player buys, are one in 175 million, the lottery said.

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The largest Powerball jackpot was $590.5 million, won by a Florida woman in May. Ticket holders in New Jersey and Minnesota shared a $448 million jackpot in August.

The amounts paid to the winners were substantially smaller because they chose cash over an annuity.

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The cutoff time for buying tickets varies by state but typically ends 59 minutes before the drawing. The winning numbers will be announced at 10:59 p.m. ET (0259 GMT) on local television networks and on the official Powerball site.