The jackpot for Saturday night's Powerball drawing has surged to $1.6 billion, the greatest ever and the next billion-dollar jackpot of 2022, after no players claimed the top prize in Wednesday's drawing. It's the fifth time a U.S. lottery prize has reached 10 digits since 2016, when the very first billion-dollar prize jackpot was announced.

The increasing prevalence is really by design, experts say — and the odds of you really winning a huge jackpot are longer than ever. Think about this: If nobody wins a given lottery draw, the jackpot money rolls over into the following draw, increasing the size of the pot. Make that lottery harder to win and you can almost guarantee higher jackpots on a typical basis, incentivizing even more individuals to purchase lottery tickets.

Powerball's organizers have gradually made their lottery harder to win for many years, says Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross who studies lotteries. The largest change came in 2015, when the lottery added more number combinations to nearly halve the odds of hitting the jackpot. Before then, your odds of winning a Powerball lottery were around 1 in 175 million, Matheson says. Today, those chances are 1 in 292.2 million.

After an over night delay organized the drawing of the greatest jackpot in American history on Monday, lottery officials in California said Tuesday that a winning, $2 billion ticket was sold in Los Angeles County. The California Lottery said the “only winning” Powerball ticket was sold at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, a gas station just north of Pasadena. Lottery officials said the ticket holder is now the initial lottery billionaire in the state. No one has come forward to claim the prize yet.

Powerball officials announced the winning numbers on Tuesday morning: 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with another 10 as the Powerball. The video announcing the winning numbers did not address the delay. The winning ticket matched all six numbers. A lot more than 11.2 million tickets won cash prizes in the drawing, totaling $98.1 million. In every, 22 tickets around the world matched all five white balls to win a $1 million prize. One ticket in Florida won $2 million by matching all five white balls and the Power Play option. There were also 225 tickets that won a $50,000 prize and another 42 tickets won a $100,000 prize.

“They've been running Powerball or its predecessor for 34 years, and they've gradually been making it harder and harder to win,” Matheson tells CNBC Make It. The nonprofit Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which runs a group of lotteries including Powerball, has begun directing more of its revenue from ticket sales toward the jackpot, rather than smaller prizes, Matheson says — whilst those smaller amounts are becoming better to win.

MUSL in addition has steadily expanded Powerball's footprint. The game now sells tickets in 45 U.S. states, including 14 states added since 2009. Much of that expansion stems from MUSL's 2009 agreement with the consortium of states that operate the Mega Millions lottery. Previously, the two lotteries operated exclusively in separate states, and their agreement paved just how for bigger jackpots for both Powerball and Mega Millions.

Mega Millions followed Powerball's path in 2017, both increasing ticket prices and adding more number combinations to develop jackpot sizes. Mega Millions'odds also jumped consequently: Your overall odds of winning are 1 in 302.6 million, down from 1 in 259 million. More recently, rising interest rates are also helping lottery operators offer bigger jackpots.