By Todd Northrop
The multi-state Powerball lottery drawing took place last night without any jackpot winners, causing the new jackpot for Saturday's drawing to grow to an estimated $180 million, with a cash option of $100.3 million.
Wednesday night was the 10th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner.
Even though there were no jackpot winners, 13 lucky tickets matched the first five numbers for a $200,000 second-place prize: 1 from Arkansas, 2 from Connecticut, 1 from Florida, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Kansas, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Minnesota, 1 from New York, 1 from North Carolina, and 3 from Ohio.
The ticket sold in Arkansas was purchased with the Power Play option, multiplying the prize to a sizeable $1 million. It was sold in Tuckerman (in Jackson County) at EZ Mart 429.
54 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Of those tickets, 15 also were purchased with the Power Play option, multiplying the prize by 2 for a total cash prize of $20,000.
The Powerball winning numbers for Wednesday, August 3, were 13, 19, 21, 28, and 49, with Powerall number 11. The Power Play number was 2.
The last Powerball jackpot to reach or exceed the size of the upcoming Saturday drawing was on June 1, 2011, when one ticket from New York won a $200 million grand prize.
A total of 1,290,407 tickets across the USA won more than $10.5 million in prizes playing "America's Game" Wednesday. 182,411 of those winning tickets were purchased with the Power Play option, which multiplied the prize by 2.
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 41 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.
Woo Hoo ............... !
Ima gonna win the big one .............
I Hope 1 person wins
I wish I was that 1 million dollar winner in arkansas. I would hae been happy with that.
$180 Million sounds good to me........
AGREED!
its about time its growing
100 million cash, that's the level i start buying 2 tickets
now here hoping it makes it to 150 million cash or 300m level persay for pb
and then i can really buy some tickets
thro i won't enjoy paying 2 bucks per ticket come 2012, but they say it make pb have more of these high jackpots more often....
I would not mind the cash option of 71.4 million deposited into my account after taxes!
Let's get em!
Diamondpalace, I agree let's. That is, if Powerball jackpot favors TEXAS!
Hell Yeah!
Hey, what about Tennessee?
T for Texas
T for Tennessee
T for Thelma
The gal that made a wreck outta me.
I have a feeling there will be more than one jackpot winners, whenever the winning numbers arrive for players. To me, which is good.
Too bad we don't have Power Ball in my state.
$180 million! yes i gonna play!
$180 million ................. Bentley Continental Supersports can run on E85 ............... I am willing to go Green !
I'm sure with that kind of money, you can make any car go green.
I got my 2 tickets!!! I may even buy another one!
Woohoo - big spender! But you can't win unless you have at least one!
I'll get 10 quick picks and wait for the drawing.
With this kind of bread, you can disappear and enjoy your life for years if you follow these 9 steps;
a) Confirm you have the winning tickets on the lottery website
b) Get a good financial manager from Fidelity or wherever and plan your financial life
c) Secretly move from your apartment and change telephone numbers and discard your car.
d) Delete your facebook accounts and things like those
e)Go claim your jp and leave the news scene asap.
f) Quit your job
g) Help out the people you care for and then tell them "no more!"
i) Live happily ever after.
What do you guys think? did I miss anything?
I got my $2 worth!
Maybe an extra $1 ............... I will claim as soon as I rent a hiding place!
Pondering as I listen to Ian Anderson performing with the London Symphony Orchestra! (on vinyl) "The lunatic is in my head"
Yes after a) should read something like:
A).1: Setup a generic corporation to mask your true identity.
Why do u recommend getting rid of your car?
In MA they won't let a corporation/trust claim your jackpot. They would die before they let you do that. Delaware is awesome.
I drive a rusty 2004 chevy cavalier. It depresses me everytime I think about it.
Too bad we don't have something like Euromillions where the advertised jackpot IS the actual amount.
Advertising the annuitized jackpot is like consumer packaging that states in the small print:
"Enlarged to show detail" or "Serving Suggestion". In other words, what is shown is not exactly what you get.
How many winners elect to take the annuitized amount? Very few to none it appears.
When the recently won Euromillion jackpot was advertised at 185,000,000 euros, that's what it was.
(And tax free to boot).
185,000,000 euros is about US$263,000,000, but that would be advertised as a "$472,000,000" jackpot.
Odds for winning Euromillions jackpot: 1 in 116,531,800 Cost of ticket: 2 euros (about US$2.84)
Odss for winning Powerball jackpot: 1 in 195,249,054 Cost of ticket: $1 ( increases to $2 in January 2012)
There have been rumors of a US national lottery with tickets costing $5.
Possibly the cross-selling was a market test for that. If consumers would purchase tickets for both multi-state lotteries then perhaps they would be willing to purchase one ticket (at a higher price) for one lottery with larger jackpots.
If you rolled Megamillions and Powerball jackpots int one MegaPower jackpot you might see jackpots (annuitized) advertised up to $500,000,000 (with an actual cash value just slightly over half that amount)
Is the 2012 increase in cost of PB tickets to $2 a market test to see if there is support for a $5 ticket cost??
What are the odds of a US national lottery jackpot being tax-free?
Lump sum. Tax free. The way a lottery ought to be.
"What do you guys think? did I miss anything?"
Yeah, you left out the party bus with all the booze and broads!
Really I didnt know they wont allow trusts to claim in MA. I'd get rid of my car too which is a 1993 Corolla. With all that money I think I would go crazy trying to decide what brand new car I want.
I can think of a few things ...... but nutting all that important
Oh my goodness! I spoke too soon. I checked the website and saw a few jp winners of the megabucks game have claimed it as a trust.
I am so glad I was wrong. But what I dont understand is this, if people can form trusts, why do we have so many of them on the websites frontpage
with their pictures and names? its a mystery.
180 million im gonna crack open my piggy bank tomorrow and take my chances :-)
my wife will not let me do this !
Oh hell no. Tennessee doesn't even have the right color of orange. They got that halloween orange instead of the burnt orange color of a gorgeous setting sun.
Texas needs a Powerball winner. I volunteer to be the first victim.