Powerball is on a hot streak. The numbers drawn Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida, produced the long-odds lottery game’s third jackpot winner in the last 31 days, as a single ticket matched all six numbers , good for a $96.5 million payout.
The one winning ticket was sold in Missouri.
While the winner had not come forward by Sunday morning, that fortunate invidual will collect $55.1 million if she or he chooses to take the single cash payment option. In Missouri, that will leave the winner with an estimated $39,121,000 after state and federal taxes take their bite, according to calculations by lottery watching group USA Mega.
Five New Millionaires In Addition To Jackpot Winner
In a particularly productive night for Powerball , five tickets were good for the second place $1 million prize by hitting the first five numbers, but not the Powerball number. One of those tickets was sold in Missouri as well, where the “Show Me” in “the Show Me State” is apparently short for “Show Me The Money.”
The other four new Powerball millionaires bought their tickets in Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts and Texas. Considering there were a relatively small number of tickets sold , just 16,032,428, last night’s numbers were especially lucky, at least at the top end of the prize scale.
Overall, there were 485,149 tickets good for at least a small, $4 prize, as the Powerball lottery gave away $8,037,315 in total prizes other than the big $96.5 million jackpot.
Here are those lucky Powerball numbers drawn on March 22:
13 — 28 — 31 — 55 — 58 Powerball 15
Rapid Fire Powerball Jackpot Winners
The total number of tickets sold was actually higher than the last time the jackpot cracked the $90 million mark, which was January 15. Fewer than 15 million tickets were sold for that drawing, which produced no winner on its way to a $425 million payout just over a month later.
The three jackpot winners in a 31-day span is the first time the game has given away three jackpots that quickly since the spring of last year, when in sudden burst of luck, players hit the jackpot on May 18, then in back-to-back drawings on May 25 and 29 — with yet another Powerball winner drawn on June 22.
Sometimes, the game can defy its seemingly impossible 175,223,510-to-one odds. The next Powerball drawing, on Wednesday March 26, carries a $40 million jackpot.
