Powerball Jackpot Tops $100 Million, Five Tickets Win Million-Dollar Second Prize Wednesday

The Powerball jackpot cracked the nine-figure barrier after no ticket matched all six numbers in Wednesday’s drawing, raising the possibility that a new round of Powerball fever could soon grip lottery players nationwide.

Saturday’s Powerball game now puts a $101 million jackpot up for grabs, which would be paid out in 30 annual checks of $3,336,667 to a single winner.

As with the previous three runs to a $100 million jackpot, the Powerball lottery took seven drawings to hit the magical nine figure mark since the last time someone won the top prize. That happened on June 11 when one Powerball player in Tennessee won a jackpot of $257 million. That winner has yet to come forward and claim the cash.

Though no one won the jackpot, Wednesday’s drawing was a good one for Powerball players as no fewer than five ticket buyers in five different states hit the first five numbers to win the nationwide lottery’s most valuable non-jackpot prize of $1 million — though one of those lucky ticket holders had the foresight to wager an extra dollar on the Power Play option, making that ticket worth $2 million, not a bad return on the investment of an extra dollar bill.

The $2 million winner bought the lucky Powerball ticket at a Wegman’s Food Market in Manalapan, New Jersey. The other four second-prize tickets, worth $1 million each before taxes take a bite, were sold in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico and South Carolina.

Ticket sales numbers were somewhat encouraging for the Powerball lottery as well. While the 14,203,177 tickets sold for Wednesday’s drawing were actually about 120,000 fewer than were purchased for Saturday’s Powerball, the total was higher than the least time the game offered a $90 million jackpot.

That came on May 14 when only 12,741,835 Powerball tickets sold. Ticket sales should accelerate now that the jackpot has topped $100 million.

Wednesday’s drawing also saw 18 third-prize winners, including one in California who under the state’s pari-mutuel payout system will collect $22,947 for matching four of the first five numbers plus the Power Ball. Two other third-prize tickets used the Power Play option to win $20,000, while the remaining 15 will collect the standard $10,000 payout.

There were 438,736 Powerball tickets worth at least some cash in Wednesday’s Powerball game. Could your be one of them? Check your ticket against the following numbers, drawn at 10:59 pm in Tallahassee, Florida.

8 — 18 — 45 — 53 — 58 Powerball 35

Saturday’s Powerball jackpot will have a single-payment cash value of $60.3 million.