$1.4 million Powerball ticket sold in California

LOS ANGELES - Feeling lucky?

While no one hit the big Powerball lottery jackpot in Wednesday night's drawing, a single person in California is taking home $1,391,550 after matching 5 numbers.

That million-dollar ticket was sold in Sacramento at the Arco ampm on Marconi Avenue. 

The winning numbers for the Dec. 18 drawing were 6, 15, 18, 33, 49, and Powerball 7.

RELATED: 2 Mega Millions tickets worth $226,000 each sold in California

The next drawing for the Powerball jackpot now worth an estimated $88 million will be held on Saturday, Dec. 21.

What are your odds?

Lottery officials set the odds at 1 in 292.2 million in hopes that jackpots will roll over with each of the three weekly drawings until the top prize becomes so enormous that more people take notice and play.

The odds used to be significantly better, at 1 in 175 million, but were made tougher in 2015 to create the humongous jackpots. Lottery officials at that time also made it easier to win smaller prizes, and they note that the overall odds of winning something are about 1 in 25.

It’s hard to envision what odds of 1 in 292.2 million mean.

One way is to think of the roughly 322 million people who live in spots where they can buy Powerball tickets — five states don’t participate. If each person bought one ticket, you would expect one person to win and hundreds of millions of people to lose.

There are 292.2 million number combinations possible in the Powerball drawing. Players have better odds to win smaller prizes, but the odds quickly get steeper as they approach the jackpot:

Put another way, the odds of winning the jackpot are a little worse than flipping a coin and getting heads 28 straight times, according to Andrew Swift, a University of Nebraska-Omaha mathematics professor.

What's the payoff?

Without a doubt, the Powerball jackpot is an incredible amount of money, but it’s also less than you might expect.

The top prize is for a sole winner who chooses to be paid through an annuity, with an immediate payment and then annual payments over 29 years. Winners almost always opt for cash.

Regardless of the payment option, a big chunk of the winnings would go toward taxes, though that amount would vary depending on winners’ other assets and whether their state taxes lottery winnings. Just note that the top federal tax income tax rate is 37%, meaning a lot of the winnings would go to Washington.