No Powerball winner, so jackpot is $475 million

DES MOINES, Iowa – So you didn’t win Wednesday’s $360 million Powerball jackpot? Make that you and everyone else.

A message early today on the multistate lottery’s website said the jackpot has soared to $475 million after no tickets matched the winning numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing.

The next drawing will be held Saturday.

Wednesday’s jackpot was considered the third largest in Powerball history and the seventh largest overall.

Lottery officials expect jackpot totals of this size to continue to climb in shorter amounts of time, thanks in part to a game redesign in January 2012 that increased the odds of winning some kind of prize, but also lowered the possible number combinations to win the Powerball.

There’s also “cross-selling” of Powerball and Mega Millions tickets – states being able to sell both Powerball tickets and Mega Millions tickets – that began in January 2010.

As a result, large jackpots will continue to surpass all-time jackpot records set years ago, said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery. Iowa is one of the founding Powerball states.

“It usually took a handful of months, if not several months, for a jackpot to reach this large amount,” she said. “Now it’s achieving that within a handful of weeks.

“I think the redesign is achieving exactly what we had wanted it to achieve, which is the bigger, faster-growing jackpot.”