Powerball: Ticket Sales Lowest Since Game Raised Price To $2 — Too Many Winners?

Powerball ticket sales hit their lowest mark since the nationwide lottery game raised the ticket price from $1 to $2 back on January 18, 2012. With eight jackpot winners since December 28 of last year — the final drawing of 2013 — jackpots have been mostly low this year, possibly dampening player interest in the Powerball game and its 175 million-to-one odds.

The seventh winner of the calendar year — who was actually the 10th since last November — was a Colorado man who won a $90 million jackpot with a ticket purchased at a Kum and Go convenience store and gas station in the town of Rifle for the August 9 drawing. The winner, a tow truck driver who gave only his first name, Claude, came forward Wednesday, just four days after the Powerball drawing which made him an instant multimillionaire.

But his win reset the Powerball jackpot to the minimum $40 million, which failed to spark much enthusiasm among the Powerball-playing public, which purchased only 10,604,871 tickets for the August 13 drawing — which not surprisingly saw no jackpot winners.

One Powerball ticket in Ohio Wednesday, however, matched the first five numbers, but not the Power Ball, which will earn that lucky ticket holder a cool $1 million.

Sales of Powerball tickets for any single drawing had not dipped below 11 million since the game revised its rules and doubled the price of a ticket to $2. But on July 23 — the drawing following another jackpot winner — a $40 million jackpot attracted just 10,913,114 sales.

Now for the second time in seven drawings, sales are in the 10 million range again.

Nonetheless, Wednesday’s Powerball drawing saw enough winning tickets — 329,137, to be exact — to be good for $2,985,866 in prize money.

There were 12 third-prize Powerball winners Wednesday, matching four of the first five numbers plus the Power Ball to win $10,000. But three of those tickets had the Power Play option activated to double that amount to $20,000. Two more third-prize winners bought their tickets in California, where under that state’s pari-mutuel payout system those tickets will be worth $18,320 each.

Did you win any money in the August 13 Powerball drawing? Check your ticket against these numbers, drawn at 10:59 pm in Tallahassee, Florida.

8 — 37 — 39 — 40 — 52 Powerball 24

The jackpot for Saturday’s Powerball drawing now rises to $50 million.