Now 5th-largest cash value in history
By Todd Northrop
Due to larger than expected sales volume, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) has raised the official Powerball lottery jackpot estimate for Wednesday's drawing to $360 million.
The all-important lump-sum cash value of the jackpot has been raised to $229.2 million — now the 5th-largest cash jackpot ever offered in a United States lottery.
"This jackpot has started a buzz across New Mexico and it's bringing out a flood of people hoping to win big," said Tom Romero, New Mexico Lottery CEO. "We might see ticket sales push the jackpot to an even higher sum before Wednesday night's drawing."
Lottery players seeking to check the winning numbers Wednesday night are urged to use USA Mega (www.usamega.com). State lottery Web sites are normally brought to a standstill during busy periods, while USA Mega normally remains responsive.
Powerball drawing results will be posted immediately after the 10:59 pm drawing at USA Mega. The number of winners and new jackpot will be announced after all participating Powerball states have reported their data, which normally occurs within a couple of hours after the drawing.
Tickets will remain on sale typically until 10:45 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, although players should check with a lottery retailer in their state for the exact sales cutoff time. Players are advised not to wait until the last minute.
The odds of winning the jackpot are approximately 1 in 175 million. The odds of winning any of the Powerball prizes are approximately 1 in 32.
Powerball tickets cost $2 each.
Lottery players can see an after-tax analysis of the current Powerball jackpot by visiting USA Mega's Jackpot Analysis page.
Powerball features nine different prize levels, ranging from $4 all the way up to the jackpot. Players can win even if they just match one number — the Powerball number.
All states except California also offer the Power Play option for an extra $1 per ticket purchased. The Power Play multiplies any non-jackpot prizes won by a fixed amount, depending on the prize level won.
Players who purchase the Power Play and win second prize will automatically have their prize increased by 2x to $2 million.
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Just rolled out some numbers from my pill bottle! Hope they will be winners! 10 bucks is all I can play! Good Luck to all of you!
Thats Awesome, good luck everyone.
count me in
Good Luck everyone 
Good luck everybody! You gotta play if you wanna win!
Woo Hoo
hope I win
All it takes is one ticket to win!
Time to do the Lotto Dance........
Oh Yeah!!!!! May the best numbers win.
I find it quite humorous that so many large lottery jackpot winners think it will be just fine to stay in their current home while still working...even if it's only for a few days. A large windfall is life changing, NOTHING will ever be the same. If the winner(s) doesn't take the appropriate steps prior to claiming their prize then they have no one to blame but themselves for the chaos that is now facing them.
I don't think it really matters how "close knit" of a community you live in because neighbors and strangers will look at you in a totally different light. Granted if you already reside in a private, heavily guarded community you might be fine but chances are you're not.
Prior to claiming your prize, you need to assemble a group of trusted advisors/attorneys to form your trust as well as get you an advance loan to move you and your entire family. No need to pack up the entire house, just take your important documents and anything with sentimental value along with some clothing and LEAVE. You can arrange to have movers come in and take the rest of your belongings to a storage facility.
This is just the start. I can't stress enough how critical it is to take at least 3-4 weeks if not more to get everything in order prior to having one of your attorneys claim your prize. If you are insolvent and feel you need to claim your prize as quickly as possible in order to get some funds then you are mistaken. Your payout usually takes at least several weeks for all the participating states to fund the jackpot. One of your advisors and/or attorneys should have no issues getting you a few hundred thousand to keep you afloat until your main payout gets wired into your financial institution.
Good luck to whomever wins and I hope it's one of you from LP but please take your time and tell no ONE other than your spouse...this means keeping a secret from your in-laws, neighbors, co-workers, friends and children.
oooohhhh,yyyeeesss,now that is real money!
I agree 100% trust no one, I've thinking its going to roll again to $560 for Saturday Night. Be Cautious, PO Box for your mail, and tell no one....Trust and go from there.... Good Luck..
Good luck to the people participating in this game.
I got my 2 tickets each with powerplay. I don't want no leakages when I hit the first 5 balls.. I'm going for the $2M
Me too! I always think in terms of the 2nd place prize.
The PB second prize is awesome especially when powerplayed
will if u win both PB/MM , u just won 530m, so its kinda like having half a billion jackpot 2 win rofl
gl with that act of god of trillion odds breaking for both
back to reality
at 229m cash,
this could be the new largest cash jackpot paid to 1 ticket winner
the Powerball: $224.7 million cash, Aug. 15, 2012 ($337 million annuity) - Michigan
was largest single cash jackpot paid to 1 ticket
large jackpots like this tend to have more then 1 winner, sales are strong. a lot of numbers get played twice."qp numbers overlaps etc"
however with recent Powerball: $211 million cash, Mar. 23, 2013 ($338.3 million annuity) - New Jersey being one ticket not long ago, its very possible
if this thing ROLLS, i say it has a REAL shot at beating old PB jackpot record
Powerball: $384.7 million cash, Nov. 28, 2012 ($587.5 million annuity) - Arizona, Missouri
before it rolled to that, it was 325,000,000 annuity /212,800,000 cash , so this one would have higher amount to roll over to half billion
however it had 4 days to sell.......... while if rolls here, it only have 3 days of none-stop sells
it be fun to watch it get close or little bit over, i say 600m annuity,
i don't think it get past MM record thro , that thing had ever star in perfact spot to do what it pulled off
then again, PB at full power nation wide with CA now joined, so they can do in sales in 3 days what they did in 4 last time
i hope to god they market it 500m at lest starting, sense both MM/PB half billion plus jackpots started out as 400m something, but got bumped up atfer first day of sales, give media there 500m, half a billion marketing news headline and people buy like flood coming and they need to stock up on supplies
I have a feeling that it will roll, at least once.
Now I start to wonder about the average market price of mid to upscale rental properties (apartments) in LA, San Bernadino, and OC. It would be sweet to own some apartment properties around colleges because there's always demands for housing near schools.
You are right.
But I am a very impatient person, kinda shoot-first-ask-questions-later type person. I will claim the prize first, then will hire a team to strategize the pla for future. It will take at least 4 weeks to receive the check so I can plan for my future while waiting for the check to be cut.
I have a large extended family and at least couple of them are high deca-millionaires. I will have to convince them I will help them with the incomes coming from the property investment out of my lottery winning. (yeah, I want to buy rental properties. Big ones of course)
At the night of winning, I will keep my winning ticket in my wallet, drive to 24-hour self storage place, then buy a whole bunch of packing items to prepare for moving.
I got my tickets for both powerball + mega. Good luck to everyone. Has anyone on here ever won at least maybe the 2nd prize in powerball or mega before?
I agree and like your thoughts..... mine are extremely similar.
Thank you!
Don't get too excited or anything... lol. Just think of how many old beaters and refurbished hearses you can buy with $229m!
Excellent advice.
I might add, the very first thing you should do is sign the back of the ticket. Then place in in-home safe or bank safe-deposit box.
Another thought I had in regards to Jill's post is if you live in a state when you can remain anonymous when claiming I don't see a neccessity to move ASAP.
But I totally agree with taking several weeks--or longer--to get things in order.
I am hoping that my luck comes through tomorrow night on my ticket for powerball.-weshar75
You're awesome Jill. I hope everyone heeds your advice.
Whenever I see a big payout on a Saturday and see the winner show up to collect it on the Monday, I give them 4 years max before it's all gone. It's all fun and games until someone is bankrupt. Going to collect it in under 3 weeks to me means they didn't do their homework and didn't set up what they needed to to protect themselves and their money.
Find a place to lay low after the obligatory check collection and press conference. Allow time for the fervor to die down before going out in public, preferably in another state. Get a PO Box under a business name, change your number and make sure the new number isn't in your name. And my favorite: Set aside 5% of the funds to go crazy with. Buy whatever hairbrained, idiotic, useless thing you want to buy. Get the need to go crazy out of your system and then be responsible with the rest.