Powerball Results: Players Running Out of Time to Play Winning Numbers for Biggest Jackpot in Months, $317 Million

What would you do with $317 million? It's something Powerball players will be dreaming about Wednesday across 45 U.S. jurisdictions. But they will only have a chance to take home the giant jackpot if they purchase their tickets by 9:59 p.m. Eastern Time, and, even then, the possibilities are slim at best.

Wednesday's jackpot marks a "return to form" for Powerball, The Associated Press reports, as the Multi-State Lottery Association game had suffered from a "drought" in $300 million-plus payouts for nearly a year. On Jan. 31, for example, they were a meager $289 million.

The slump has to do with the "inherently random" nature of lottery jackpots, Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery and president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, said. He added that the game is expected to have slow periods based on projection models.

Even this week's potential winner would have to make some cutbacks: The after-tax cash value of the prize sits at only $220.6 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association; that is barely enough for a brand-new Boeing 787-800. Compare that to Powerball's last major jackpot, which came in at $425 million in February 2014.

Its counterpart Mega Millions, meanwhile, boasted a $326 million jackpot as recently as November, the largest jackpot since March 2014's $414 million.

Mega Millions also holds the record for the largest jackpot in American lottery history: For the March 30, 2012 drawing, the figure reached $656 million. The three winners, who hailed from Illinois, Kansas and Maryland, all opted for the $474 million cash option, meaning they each were cut a check of $158 million.

Huge jackpots draw more players, but also come with "jackpot fatigue" as participants become unfazed by smaller prizes, Paula Otto, the executive director of the Virginia Lottery and lead director for Mega Millions, said.

"Why do people play? Why don't they play?" Otto said lottery executives ask themselves. "What could we do to change the game to make it more attractive at all jackpot levels?"