By Todd Northrop
There was no jackpot winner in the Saturday night drawing of the multi-state Powerball lottery game, causing the grand prize to increase to an estimated $245 million for Wednesday's drawing.
Saturday was the 9th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner. The jackpot run started August 10 as a $40 million jackpot.
The estimated cash value for the new jackpot is $136.3 million. After-tax cash and annuity prize amounts are reported state-by-state on the Jackpot Analysis page at USA Mega, a web site devoted to the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-state lottery games.
Players should note that jackpot amounts are conservative estimates provided by the lotteries, and are often somewhat higher by the time the drawing occurs. For example, the original estimate for Saturday's drawing was $203 million, but by the time all the proceeds were counted just before draw-time, the jackpot had swelled to $208 million.
Although there were no jackpot winners Saturday, 4 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 2 from Illinois, 1 from Michigan, and 1 from New Mexico.
Only one of the second-prize winners purchased the Power Play option — one of the tickets sold in Illinois. Because that ticket was purchased with the Power Play option, their second-prize win is automatically doubled to $2 million.
Power Play is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered in Power Play is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts. By law, California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.
55 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Of those tickets, 5 were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $40,000, and 9 of the tickets were sold in California, where the prize was worth $6,165 this drawing.
The Powerball winning numbers for Saturday, September 7, were 2, 19, 22, 26, and 45, with Powerball number 24.
Following the Saturday drawing, the Powerball annuity jackpot estimate was raised $37 million from its previous amount of $208 million. The cash value was raised by $18 million from its previous amount of $118.3 million.
The next Powerball drawing will take place Wednesday night at 10:59 pm Eastern Time.
When a Powerball ticket is purchased with the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket, any non-jackpot prize is increased according to a fixed prize schedule, which can be found on the Powerball Drawing Detail page at USA Mega, as well as on the Powerball Prize Payouts page at Lottery Post.
Powerball is now played in 43 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
A 44th Powerball state will be added in early 2014, as the state of Wyoming has approved a new state lottery with the intention of joining Powerball and other multi-state lottery games. (See Wyoming officially becomes 44th state with a lottery, Lottery Post, Mar. 14, 2013.)
The Powerball winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Wouldn't it be ironic if someone from New York won this on 9-11?
I get winning ticket.
you just had to go thar didn't ya.....
No need to hold a silly drawing.Just put the money in my bank account.I'll send you the routing number.
Good Luck to all players
I wouldn't say no to this..Very sad day for everyone in the USA.Never Forget 9-11
It's more money than I know what to do with but I'm in!!
That's just over 100 million bucks! Whoa, that'd be real nice.
I was actually in Manhattan doing an internship during that time so yes it was extremely sad. I lost many friends on that day.
Hey golfer! If you're the lucky sole winner, a net amount of $70 million after all Federal and state tax obligations are satisfied should be a little bit easier to handle Good luck to you!
Does anyone think it will roll to $280 Million by Wednesday..
Hi Jill, nice to see you again. Let's see $70M is nice but still lots of money. After buying a few big ticket items and setting up an income stream not sure how I'd spend it. Could you help me out with that?
I am hoping for a Party in Pennsylvania on 9/12
LOL ...........
Here in Pennsylvania it would be about $83,000,000 !