Powerball Jackpot Starts Climbing Again As Numbers Yield No Big Winner
The Powerball jackpot restarted Wednesday night, at its minimum of $40 million after Saturday’s drawing produced one big winner of a $96.5 million top prize. But no one won the jackpot in Wednesday’s drawing, so the big-money lottery game begins its upward climb again. How high will Powerball reach this time?
Saturday’s Powerball game will carry a $50 million jackpot. To a winner who takes the prize in a single payment, the jackpot will be $28.7 million. The largest Powerball jackpot ever won was $590.5 million on May18 of last year.
While last Saturday’s winner has not yet come forward, and neither has the February 19 winner of a whopping $425 million prize, it’s a lot easier to locate where winning tickets were sold. The $96.5 million winner was dispensed at Bridgeton Mobil, a gas station at 12239 Natural Bridge Road in Bridgeton, Missouri, an address now considered the source of magical powers by other local residents, apparently, as they have flooded the place to buy their Powerball tickets over the past several days.
“To hit here like this, to be that close. It ran off of that machine. It’s thrilling,” said one Powerball player, Ken Gries, at the Mobil station Wednesday. I bought $25 worth tonight.”
The gas station itself collected a $50,000 check from the state lottery commission for selling the winning Powerball ticket.
The deadline varies slightly by state, but winners usually have approximately six months to claim a prize. The Powerball winner in California February 19 has already exhausted the first of those months. While lottery commissions always advise winners to sign the back of their tickets immediately, because there’s no compensation for a lost or stolen ticket, they also have a piece of even more obvious advice.
Check your ticket!
You’d think that wouldn’t be an issue, but in December, a man in San Jose, California, won half of a near-record $648 million jackpot in the Mega Millions game. It took him two weeks to remember that he had even bought a ticket. He claimed his prize in January. Did the $425 million winner in California simply forget to check his or her Powerball ticket?
Don’t forget to check yours. Here are the numbers drawn Wednesday, March 26, at 10:59 pm Eastern Daylight Time in Tallahassee, Florida.
28 — 33 — 41 — 44 — 59 Powerball 21
While there was no jackpot winner Wednesday, three tickets — one each in Minnesota, New York and Vermont — matched the first five numbers, but not the Powerball number, for a $1 million prize.
And 10 of the 12,123,832 tickets sold hit four of the first five numbers plus the Powerball for a $10,000 payout, doubled to $20,000 for three tickets that used the Power Play option.
In California with its unique pari-mutuel system, the third prize Powerball payout was less, just $6,144.
