WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Nobody matched the winning numbers Saturday of 16-19-32-34-57+13 for the record $950-million Powerball lottery drawing. The jackpot now rolls over to an estimated more than $1.3 billion for the Wednesday drawing--crossing the billion-dollar threshold for the first time.
News flash: Convenience stores, gas stations and other lottery retailers are reporting huge ticket sales increases.
For Saturday’s Powerball drawing, two tickets worth $2 million for matching five numbers with Power Play were sold in Connecticut and Texas and 14 tickets worth $1 million for matching five numbers were sold in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania Texas and Virginia. Nobody had the Powerball number that would have won the jackpot.
The top Powerball jackpot was $590.5 million on May 18, 2013, also the top North American lottery jackpot for a single ticket, which was sold in Florida. The record North American lottery jackpot was $656 million on March 30, 2012, with three winning tickets sold in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.
The billion-dollar Powerball prize would still be dwarfed by Spain’s Christmas lottery nicknamed El Gordo (“the fat one”), which awarded $2.4 billion last month to thousands of winners, said the Associated Press.
A recent survey by Framingham, Mass.-based convenience-store retailer Cumberland Farms found that lottery players are not especially superstitious, with 64% of respondents saying they rarely play the same numbers more than once if they don’t win, and more than half of respondents saying they pay no attention to a store’s previous history of winners when deciding where to purchase tickets. Of those who don’t opt for quick picks, 38% of respondents choose their numbers based off of significant birthdays, while 11% use their wedding date or other important anniversaries when picking their numbers.
The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), West Des Moines, Iowa, is a government-benefit, non-profit association entirely owned and operated by the member lotteries of the games administered by MUSL. It offers seven lottery games through its member lotteries. Powerball is sold by lotteries in 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. territories.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.