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 $222 million for Wednesday's drawing.
Saturday was the 10th consecutive drawing without a jackpot winner. The jackpot run started April 3 as a $40 million jackpot.
The estimated cash value for the new jackpot is $144.5 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.
Although there were no jackpot winners Saturday, 4 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 prize: 2 from California, 1 from Maryland, and 1 from New York. The 2 California second-prize winners will each be awarded $917,856, because California does not award fixed prizes. 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.
None of the second-prize winners purchased the Power Play option. If they had, their second-prize win would have 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.
65 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Of those tickets, 13 were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $40,000, and 2 of the tickets were sold in California, where the prize was worth $26,044 this drawing.
The Powerball winning numbers for Saturday, May 4, were 7, 12, 26, 36, and 40, with Powerball number 17.
Following the Saturday drawing, the Powerball annuity jackpot estimate was raised $31 million from its previous amount of $191 million. The cash value was raised by $19.8 million from its previous amount of $124.7 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.
The Powerball winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
I already bought my tickets!
Roll baby roll.
I got my play slips in hand and Im heading to the store.
I may go crazy and buy TWO tickets tomorrow!
222 million will buy you plenty of crêpes.
Good idea. I may add some lines for "regular" play this week. The LP QP generator may do the trick.
I'm thinking only the poshest of posh for Artist.
THE MANIA HAS STARTED, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GO CRAZY, HAVE CLOSE DOOR MEETS, START POOL AND SCREAM BLOODY MURDER!!!!
I MAY JUST PURCHASE TWO TICKETS LEAVE IT REST TO EVERYONE TO TRY THEIR LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol Wow yes. I like the 222 number also.
lol Yes. I will out posh Ivanka Trump!
Your out of control, stop ! look! listen! stop, drop roll, take the bull by the horns, a stitch in time saves nine, the early bird gets the worm. hehehehe
Good luck!
I can see it's gonna be a wild ride.
I will buy a ticket today to see if cinco de mayo is my lucky day for a powerball winner. Good luck to all who play.-weshar75
lol lol
Sorry Wes, that does'nt work for Gringos but good luck anyways.
Catch the fever Artist, lay down a $10. bill. The last big winner in AZ did it that way and IMA do the same.
nahhhhh, I always use Powerplay. Can I afford $10? Yes, many times that but I believe in the thrifty approach. I do study the numbers and try different strategies. This thrift enabled me to pay my home off wayyyyy before a lot of other people my age could and have a nice growing retirement account. Sensible is my middle name. lol Less is more.
You convinced me. I just got a LP QP and have the slip marked. I'll go buy it today to get double luck with Cinco De Mayo.
Oh, and I guess I'll take my lucky penny with me too.
$222 million sounds good to me
Lol yes she is
Grumpy cat!!!!!! Check out her book. It is sizzling on Amazon and it is still 6 months till its release.It will very likely make the NY Times bestseller's list this fall. Between her products with her images and the book, that is a 3-5 milllion dollar cat.
i think i will wait to buy mine the day of this time
Good Luck everyone
we posted at the same time
Happy cat
I know redstang but you got to try sometimes and take a leap of faith. Who knows maybe I will win a million on this powerball ticket I bought today. Good luck to you redstang.-weshar75
o i can do one
Sorry guys. I lied. I actually would love to help people and believe in education.
In that sense, I would set up a charity for local veterans.
I am thinking with four days of sales this jackpot might go higher than 222 million. Especially since cali is in the mix.-weshar75
Hopefully the winner for this big prize will be me! Good luck everyone.
I'm getting mine 2 morro GL everyone!
With this huge amount of money, I think I can already establish a business. I need to plan on how am I going to spend this money because I will be the winner of this jackpot prize! :)
would be nice to retire, good luck everyone
Did'nt expect it to grow. California has failed to deliver.
I'm glad that California has joined Powerball. Good luck to the players participating in this game.
Since the jackpot is $222 million let's play a little: