$174 MILLION: Tomorrow's Powerball lottery jackpot red hot

Sep 21, 2012, 9:21 am (76 comments)

Powerball

By Todd Northrop

The multi-state Powerball lottery drawing took place Wednesday night without any jackpot winners, causing the new jackpot for Saturday's drawing to grow to an estimated $174 million, with a cash option of $110 million.

Saturday night was the 10th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner.

Even though there were no jackpot winners, 3 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 1 from Idaho, 1 from Iowa, and 1 from North Carolina.

None of the second prize tickets was purchased with the Power Play option.

42 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Of those tickets, 7 also were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $40,000.

The Powerball winning numbers for Wednesday, September 19, were 1, 5, 8, 39, and 50, with Powerball number 23.

The last Powerball jackpot to reach or exceed the size of the upcoming Saturday drawing was last month, on August 15, when Donald Lawson, a Railroad Engineer from Lapeer, Michigan, won $337 million and chose to take the cash option of $224.7 million — the largest Powerball cash payout in the history of the game.  (See Michigan railroad engineer claims $337M Powerball lottery jackpot, Lottery Post, August 31, 2012.)

A total of 694,712 tickets across the USA won more than $7.9 million in prizes playing "America's Game" Wednesday. 108,142 of those winning tickets were purchased with the Power Play option, which increased their prizes up to 4 times.

When a Powerball ticket is purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket, any non-jackpot prize is increased by a set amount.  For example, second-place Power Play-enabled tickets matching five numbers but not the Powerball are increased from $1 million to $2 million.

Powerball is now played in 42 states, plus 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.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

LottoPerro

Ching ching!  The bubble is getting bigger again.

RedStang's avatarRedStang

 The Superbowl is "Americas game". Powerball is Uncle Sams game.

Ronnie316

Ah.....The wonders of the voluntary tax system.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Hmmm, looks like only a little over 15.5% of players played the Power Play option. I guess I'm in the minority.

But I know if I was one of those 42 players who got 4+1, I'd sure be glad to be one of the seven of them who spent the extry buck to get 40k instead of 10k.

And even as unlikely as it is, you're waaaaay more likely to hit 4+1 (1 in 648,976) than the Jackpot (1 in 175,223,510).

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

who's going to win this time? a califorian or a new yorker?

RJOh's avatarRJOh

If nobody wins Saturday a few more of those players who are reluctant to spend $2 on a ticket will be buying a PB ticket for Tuesday's drawing.  I was one and already I'm giving up buying 20 MM tickets tonight to buy 10 PB tickets for tomorrow.

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960

Quote: Originally posted by whiteballz on Sep 21, 2012

who's going to win this time? a califorian or a new yorker?

Hey Ballz, I'm hoping it's one of us in New Jersey!

Let's split it between Nutley and Eatontown, eh? Wink

LottoGuyBC's avatarLottoGuyBC

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by whiteballz on Sep 21, 2012

who's going to win this time? a califorian or a new yorker?

California doesn't have PowerBall, if a Californian wins it he will have brought his ticket out of state, maybe in New York.

golfer1960's avatargolfer1960

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Sep 21, 2012

Hmmm, looks like only a little over 15.5% of players played the Power Play option. I guess I'm in the minority.

But I know if I was one of those 42 players who got 4+1, I'd sure be glad to be one of the seven of them who spent the extry buck to get 40k instead of 10k.

And even as unlikely as it is, you're waaaaay more likely to hit 4+1 (1 in 648,976) than the Jackpot (1 in 175,223,510).

I hear you Ridge. I'd like to double down with the power play but I just can't afford it. I play both MM and PB on every drawing so it gets expensive besides, I've never won more than $7.00 on any game. No confidence.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by golfer1960 on Sep 21, 2012

I hear you Ridge. I'd like to double down with the power play but I just can't afford it. I play both MM and PB on every drawing so it gets expensive besides, I've never won more than $7.00 on any game. No confidence.

I can see not playing the Power Play if you're buying a lot of tickets, that it could become cost prohibitive but I only play two lines so it's worth it to me. I'm in on every drawing too and I think I'd be pissed if I won 10k, knowing that another buck would have made it 40k.

But then I'm always swingin' for the fences. 

Good luck!

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Sep 21, 2012

If nobody wins Saturday a few more of those players who are reluctant to spend $2 on a ticket will be buying a PB ticket for Tuesday's drawing.  I was one and already I'm giving up buying 20 MM tickets tonight to buy 10 PB tickets for tomorrow.

The Powerball drawings are Wednesdays and Saturday. 

I am hoping to wake up sunday a very happy man so I will buy in. 

Goodluck players

JakpotRetiree2b

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Sep 21, 2012

Hmmm, looks like only a little over 15.5% of players played the Power Play option. I guess I'm in the minority.

But I know if I was one of those 42 players who got 4+1, I'd sure be glad to be one of the seven of them who spent the extry buck to get 40k instead of 10k.

And even as unlikely as it is, you're waaaaay more likely to hit 4+1 (1 in 648,976) than the Jackpot (1 in 175,223,510).

Speaking of the crazy odds, I read this one recently from another article and it just cracks me up:

 

"...a person who drives 10 miles to buy a Powerball ticket is 16 times more likely to die in a car crash than to win the big jackpot."

 

I'm still convinced I'm gonna hit the jackpot though dammit!!!  LOL!! Hyper

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Quote: Originally posted by JakpotRetiree2b on Sep 21, 2012

Speaking of the crazy odds, I read this one recently from another article and it just cracks me up:

 

"...a person who drives 10 miles to buy a Powerball ticket is 16 times more likely to die in a car crash than to win the big jackpot."

 

I'm still convinced I'm gonna hit the jackpot though dammit!!!  LOL!! Hyper

Good.  It's probably in your best interest to remain a "convinced" gambler. Thumbs Up

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