$905 million jackpot at stake in tonight’s Powerball drawing

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The 16th-largest lottery jackpot in American history, $905 million, will be at stake in tonight's Powerball drawing after 42 consecutive drawings without a ticket sold with all six numbers.

Ticket sales end at 7 p.m. The drawing is set for 7:59 p.m.

Monday's jackpot is the eighth-largest in the history of the Powerball game, which has been played since 1992. There have been eight larger Mega Millions jackpots.

Buying tickets at a location where tickets with large jackpots have been sold in the past will not increase a player's chance of winning the jackpot, according to USC mathematics Professor Emeritus Ken Alexander.

``The chance that a given place will sell a winning lottery ticket is just related to how many tickets they sell,'' Alexander told City News Service. However, players wanting a better chance of avoiding sharing the jackpot should choose numbers that aren't selected as often, Alexander said.

Lottery players frequently choose the date of their birthdays as one of their numbers, so numbers higher than 31 would be played less, Alexander said.

The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.

The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands and since July 21, the United Kingdom.