National Lottery draw hits £377 MILLION in Britain’s biggest ever jackpot – AOL
National Lottery players will be in line to scoop a £377 million prize this weekend in the largest jackpot ever offered in a UK draw.
The gigantic sum will be up for grabs on the Powerball – but there’s one catch. If you win it, the money will be paid over 30 years, rather than in one lump sum. Britain became the first country outside the US and its territories to enter the Powerball earlier this month.
The £377 million draw will be held in Miami, Florida at 11pm Saturday local time (4am Sunday BST). Players pick five numbers from 1 to 69 and a Powerball number from 1 to 26, and tickets cost £4. You have to match them all to take the top prize.
US winners have the option to claim the prize in full – while it will be paid annually for British players -Credit:Anadolu via Getty Images
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Tickets can be purchased in shops or online, the same as existing National Lottery games such as the EuroMillions and Lotto. And like the other draws, you can also opt for a lucky dip if you’d rather not choose the numbers yourself.
UK players must buy their tickets before 11.55pm on Saturday to enter this weekend’s draw. While Powerball winners in the US have the option to take the money straight away and have 50% shaved off, you can only receive it in annuity in the UK.
National Lottery Allwyn said this would ensure that winners get the biggest jackpot possible. The jackpot is divided equally if there are multiple people with the same winning numbers – raising the prospect of money being shared across the pond.
A UK winner on the Florida draw would dwarf Joe and Jess Thwaite’s £184 million EuroMillions win -Credit:Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror
Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, said: “The Powerball jackpot now stands at a staggering £377M, this is mind-blowing money.
“When jackpots reach these heights, it’s impossible not to imagine the possibilities. From unforgettable experiences to lasting legacies, a prize of this size has the power to transform lives in extraordinary ways. Players have until 11.55pm on Saturday night to get their tickets.
“Playing any National Lottery game is about so much more than just a big win. Every week, players help raise around £33M for Good Cause projects that make a real difference to communities across the UK.”
Britain’s biggest ever lottery win to date came in July 2022, when an anonymous ticketholder scooped £195 million on the EuroMillions. The second-highest winners are Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucester, a couple in their 40s who scooped up a then-record £184.3 million in May the same year with a Lucky Dip ticket.
Joe, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, who ran a hairdressing salon, both went to work on the day they found out about the win. Mrs Thwaite said a few days later: “I didn’t think it was real to be honest. I still don’t think that it’s real.”
EuroMillions jackpots are capped at €250 million (£215 million), but there are no upper limits on Powerball prizes. The largest US win ever was a $2.04 billion (£1.5 billion) jackpot scooped by Powerball player Edwin Castro in California in November 2022.
He was later taken to court by a man who alleged he stole his ticket one day before the draw, but the claim was thrown out by a Los Angeles judge. Mr Castro’s $3.8 million ocean front Malibu home was destroyed in last year’s California wildfires. He has since bought more land ravaged by the disaster, and has promised to develop the sites to build family homes.
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