Powerball: Powerball lottery jackpot soars to $195 million
The Powerball jackpot continues to climb. Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, 853,497 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 the jackpot will grow to an estimated $195 million for Saturday night's drawing.
The cash option for the Saturday, April 8th drawing will be an estimated $91 million.
The numbers drawn Wednesday were 3, 9, 24, 29, 39 and the Powerball was 42. The Power Play multiplier was 2.
Seven lucky players in the states of Arizona (1), Delaware (1), Missouri (1), New Hampshire (1), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (1), and West Virginia (1), correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000. Two players in Pennsylvania and South Carolina not only won at that prize level but also purchased the Power Play and had the $200,000 multiplied by 2 for a total win of $400,000.
Sixty players matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000.
7 additional winners of that prize category also wisely purchased the Power Play option that multiplied their win 2 times for a total of $20,000.
More than 130,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 2 Wednesday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply any winnings from 2-5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun to select that night's multiplier.
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 $34.6 million in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.
The lotteries sold approximately $2 billion in Powerball tickets in FY05. That translates into more than $600 million for worthwhile state projects.