Powerball: N.C. lottery excitement: first Powerball jackpot winnerSomeone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket this week in North Carolina is $74.5 million richer this morning.
Powerball officials say one winning ticket — matching all six numbers drawn Wednesday night — was sold this week. That ticket was sold in North Carolina, although there is no word this morning where that ticket was purchased.
The winning numbers were 2, 8, 9, 12 and 19, with the Powerball number of 25. The Power Play multiplier was 3.
This is the first Powerball jackpot won with a ticket purchased in North Carolina since the game first went on sale there May 30, 2006.
The holder of the winning ticket will now have to decide to either take the 29-year, 30-installment annuity, or the one time cash "lump sum" amount of $36,071,688.
In addition to the jackpot winner, two tickets were sold in North Carolina that had the five correct numbers, but not the Powerball number. Each of those tickets is worth $200,000.
This jackpot win comes one week after Philip Smith, a hairstylist in Charlotte, won $1 million in the Powerball lottery with a ticket he purchased in South Carolina. Smith had the five winning numbers, making the ticket worth $200,000 — but he also had the correct Power Play number, 5. That multiplied his winnings by five.
In Wednesday's Powerball drawing, 25 tickets correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000: 1 from Arizona (with Power Play), 1 from Colorado, 3 from Connecticut, 1 from Washington, D.C. (with Power Play), 4 from Indiana (2 with Power Play), 2 from Louisiana, 1 from Minnesota, 2 from Missouri, 1 from North Carolina, 1 from New Hampshire, 1 from Oklahoma (with Power Play), 2 from Pennsylvania (1 with Power Play), 2 from Rhode Island, 2 from Tennessee (1 with Power Play) and 1 from Wisconsin (with Power Play).
Each second prize winner will get $200,000, but the 8 tickets that were purchased with the Power Play option will receive $600,000, as the Power Play multiplier number was 3.
Besides the jackpot, there were a total of 523,202 winning tickets in "America's Game" Wednesday evening, Those tickets won prizes totaling $13,682,627.
Other big winners included 102 tickets that matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. An additional 18 tickets at that level also purchased the Power Play option multiplying the prize by 3 for a total win of $30,000.
A total of 100,325 winning Powerball plays were multiplied by 3 Wednesday evening. Winners were able to do so by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you can multiply your winnings, except for the jackpot, from 2 to 5 times. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun to select that night's multiplier.
Players purchased more than $20.3 million in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.
The jackpot for Saturday, December 2nd, will be $15 million.
