Powerball Jackpot On The Way Up, Worth $70 Million After No Winner Wednesday
The Powerball jackpot jumped to $70 million after Wednesday’s numbers failed to turn anyone into a big winner for the third drawing in a row, and created only one new millionaire, with a single ticket sold in Michigan matching the first five numbers, but not the Powerball.
Out of 27 drawings so far in 2014, Powerball has seen three jackpots given away.
Only 13,226,508 Powerball tickets were sold for Wednesday’s drawing, the ninth time this year that sales have fallen below the 14 million mark. Sales have not cracked the 100 million threshold at all in 2014, even for the February 19 drawing that carried a $425 million jackpot, the sixth-largest lottery prize ever.
That drawing sold 91,515,511 tickets and produced one winner, who finally claimed his massive cash prize Tuesday of this week. The last time Powerball sold more than 100 million tickets was August 7 of last year, a drawing which also carried a jackpot of about $425 million.
That drawing saw 135,504,655 tickets sold, more than 40 million better than the more recent $425 million jackpot.
The other nationwide lottery game, Mega Millions cracked the 100 million ticket mark just last month when a $414 million jackpot attracted sales of 113,435,277 tickets. Mega Millions tickets cost $1 each, while Powerball tickets go for two bucks.
Wednesday’s drawing produced a total of 412,297 tickets good for payoffs of at least $3. In other words, just three percent of all Powerball tickets sold returned any cash at all.
But yours might have been one of them. Check your Powerball ticket against these numbers, drawn at 10:59 pm Eastern Time Wednesday night in Tallahassee, Florida:
8 — 13 — 19 — 22 — 53 Powerball 24
Saturday’s Powerball game is worth $70 million to one lucky winner who chooses the annuity option, which would bring an average payout of $1.75 million annually this year and for the next 29 years.
The single-payment cash jackpot for the April 5 Powerball game will be $40.7 million, or an estimated $30,525,000 after federal taxes take their bite.
