We’re apparently not done with this jackpot hub-bub just yet!
Even though the huge Mega Millions jackpot was won in Tuesday’s drawing, Powerball’s top prize continues to climb, and it also has reached an eye-popping level: It’s an estimated $750 million annuity, or $428.6 million lump-sum option, for Saturday.
The Powerball jackpot is now the fourth-largest lottery prize ever offered in the United States and the third-largest in the history of the game.
The winning numbers in last night’s $602.5 million Powerball drawing were: 3-21-45-53-56 and Powerball 22. The Power Play number was 2.
A total of 43,097 plays purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes in last night’s drawing, and the other trends we have seen from other recent drawings continued to hold true. Nearly all of the plays purchased in Iowa for last night’s Powerball drawing were easy picks (91.5 percent to be exact), meaning that players let the lottery terminal randomly pick the numbers on their tickets.
And what about that ‘coverage’ issue you’ve heard us talking about? The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because that’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers available in the game to make a play. By looking at nationwide sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 36 percent of all the possible combinations were purchased for last night’s drawing.
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