The Powerball jackpot rose to $100 million after Wednesday’s numbers produced no big winner , meaning that both nationwide lottery games — Powerball and Mega Millions — are now carrying jackpots in the nine-figure range.
The last time both Powerball and Mega Millions were simultaneously in the nine-figure jackpot range was a two-week period in February. Starting with the February 7 Mega Millions drawing which carried a $107 million jackpot and ending with a $425 million Powerball jackpot won on February 19, both games saw nine-figure annuity jackpots. Now they are in that rarefied territory again.
The $100 million figure is the total amount that would be paid out over 30 years in annual payments averaging $3,333,333. The actual amount paid each increases each year. The first annual payment would be $1,783,010 before taxes. But the payment in the 30th year would total $5,560,586.
Taxes, of course, vary by state.
The cash value of Saturday’s Powerball jackpot to a winner who chooses to receive the prize money in one payment rather than 30 is $59.2 million before taxes.
Wednesday’s drawing was the sixth in a row with no jackpot winner since a Florida man won $148.8 million in the April 23 Powerball game.
With the jackpot pushing past the $100 million mark, the Powerball game is likely to see a pickup in ticket sales, which have been sluggish lately. The $90 million jackpot offered in Wednesday’s drawing attracted sales of 12,741,835 tickets, down by more than a million from the previous Saturday when the jackpot was $80 million.
In fact, none of the last six Powerball drawings since the April 23 jackpot winner have attracted more than 14 million ticket sales.
Wednesday’s Powerball numbers also yielded no second prize winners , while 18 ticket holder matched four of the first five numbers plus the Powerball number for the $10,000 third prize — though four of those ticket buyers paid the extra dollar for the Power Play option, making their tickets worth $30,000, and two others were purchased in California where under the state’s pari-mutuel payout system the third prize tickets were each worth $28,886.
In total, $2,742,009 was won in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. Is any of that money yours? Check your ticket against these numbers:
7 — 33 — 39 — 52 — 55 Powerball 33
Powerball numbers are drawn every Wednesday an Saturday at 10:59 pm Eastern time in Tallahassee, Florida.
