Powerball: $275 MILLION: Powerball lottery jackpot raised again

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The Powerball jackpot continues to build, now exceeding the level attained by Mega Millions last month before it was won by a Georgia couple.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers the jackpot grew to an estimated $275 million for Saturday night's drawing, with a cash option of $135.7 million.

It is the largest American jackpot in nearly seven months.  The last jackpot to reach this level was a $330 Million Mega Millions jackpot on August 31, 2007.  That was right after a $314 million Powerball jackpot that was won on August 25, 2007.

Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, 1,566,307 players across the nation won a total of more than $14.1 million in prizes in America's favorite Game.

The numbers drawn Wednesday were 12, 19, 30, 34, 36 and the Powerball was 8. The Power Play multiplier was 4.

Sixteen lucky tickets in Indiana (3), Louisiana (1), Minnesota (1), Missouri (2), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (5), Rhode Island (1), South Carolina (1), and West Virginia (1) correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000.

Eighty-three tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000.

Five additional winners of that prize category purchased the Power Play option that multiplied the win 4 times for a total of $40,000.

A total of 209,264 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 4 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 $62,740,976 in Powerball and Power Play tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.

The lotteries sold over $2.5 billion in Powerball tickets in fiscal year 2007. That translates into approximately $725 million for worthwhile state projects.