Powerball: Powerball jackpot jumps to $135 million
The Powerball jackpot continues to grow.
No one hit the jackpot Saturday, but 686,572 players across the nation won a total of more than $7.5 million in prizes in "America's Game".
Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Saturday's drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $135 million.
The cash option for the Wednesday, March 29th drawing will be an estimated $63.8 million.
The numbers drawn Saturday were 20, 34, 37, 39, 45, and the Powerball was 32. The Power Play multiplier was 4.
Six players correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000. Their winning tickets were purchased in Colorado (1), Iowa (1), Minnesota (1), New Mexico (1), Oklahoma (1), and Pennsylvania (1). One additional lucky player in New Mexico who matched 5 also wisely purchased the Power Play option and multiplied the $200,000 prize by 4 for a total win of $800,000.
Thirty-three players matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Nine additional winners at that prize level also purchased the Power Play option multiplying their winnings 4 times for a total of $40,000.
More than 126,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 4 Saturday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings by 2-5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun to select that night's multiplier. During the current "Power Play 10X" promotion, that ends with the drawing of March 29th, all prizes (except the jackpot) can be multiplied up to 10 times for the same $1 Power Play cost.
Players should carefully check their tickets after every draw. Even if there are no jackpot winners there are always tens of thousands of winners at other prize levels.
Players purchased more than $31.3 million in tickets between Wednesday and Saturday night. The lotteries sold more than $2 billion in Powerball tickets in FY05. That translates into more than $600 million for worthwhile state projects.