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Powerball rises to $1.3 billion jackpot: Chair 'as surprised as everyone else'

Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery stopped by TODAY to discuss the now $1.3 billion jackpot.
/ Source: TODAY

The Texas Lottery executive director says he is "just as surprised as everyone else" that nobody won last night's $949.8 million Powerball lottery, and that the jackpot prize has been kicked up to $1.3 billion.

"That just shows the total randomness of Powerball," Gary Grief told TODAY's Erica Hill and Jeff Rossen Sunday, adding that "it just takes one ticket to win."

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And there was no shortage of folks hoping they'd be the buyer of that lucky ticket yesterday.

"At our peak last night, we were selling more than $1.2 million in Powerball tickets every single minute," said Grief.

Saul Loeb / Getty Images

We can expect that frenzy to get even crazier in lead up to this next Wednesday, when a whopping $1.3 billion is at stake.

Last night's Powerball numbers, which saw no winners, were 16, 19, 32, 34, 57, with a Powerball of 13.

As with the $949.8 million jackpot, to win the $1.3 billion all six numbers must be correct. The first five numbers can appear in any sequence, but the sixth must be the Powerball number — making the odds even trickier.

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"So here we are now, 20 rolls into our next jackpot run with $1.3 billion on the line for Wednesday night," said Grief, pointing out that if a winner wants to take the cash value of the jackpot, that would equal $806 million in cash.