Biggest Powerball jackpot in 8 months
By Todd Northrop
The multi-state Powerball lottery drawing happened last night once again without any jackpot winners, causing the new jackpot for Saturday's drawing to grow to an estimated $184 million, with a cash option of $90.1 million.
Wednesday night was the 9th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner.
Even though there were no jackpot winners, 12 lucky tickets matched the first five numbers for a $200,000 second-place prize: 1 from Arizona, 2 from Florida, 1 from Idaho, 1 from Indiana, 1 from Michigan, 2 from Minnesota, 1 from New Jersey, 1 from New York, 1 from North Carolina, and 1 from Tennessee.
Three of the second-place tickets were sold with the Power Play option, which multiplied the prize to a sizeable $1 million each. Those tickets were sold in Arizona, Florida, and Idaho.
43 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Of those tickets, four also were purchased with the Power Play option, multiplying the prize by 3 for a total cash prize of $30,000.
The Powerball winning numbers for Wednesday, February 23, were 29, 32, 36, 39, and 49, with Powerall number 29. The Power Play number was 3.
The last Powerball jackpot to reach the size of the upcoming Saturday drawing was on June 2, 2010, when one ticket from Ohio won a $261.6 million grand prize.
A total of 1,081,363 tickets across the USA won more than $11.2 million in prizes playing "America's Game" Wednesday. 161,275 of those winning tickets were purchased with the Power Play option, which multiplied the prize by 3.
When a Powerball ticket is purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket, any non-jackpot prize is multiplied from 2-5 times, depending on a computerized random number generated that evening. Second-place Power Play-enabled tickets matching five numbers but not the Powerball are always multiplied by 5 times, for a $1 million prize.
Powerball is now played in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The Powerball winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.