UPDATE on Tuesday, Jan. 19: The jackpot for tonight's Mega Millions drawing has been raised even further. The new details are included here.
The Mega Millions® and Powerball® jackpots have made it through another round of drawings and are in the Top 5 for each game. Mega Millions has the second-largest prize in the history of that game, while Powerball now has the fourth-largest prize in that game.
Three Iowa tickets – one in Mega Millions and two in Powerball – were just one number away from having at least a share of this past weekend's jackpots and each won a sizeable prize.
This is the first time the jackpots have simultaneously topped the $700 million mark.
Mega Millions has the next drawing up, at 10 p.m. Tuesday. Its jackpot now stands at an estimated $865 million annuity, $638.8 million lump-sum option. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on Sept. 15 with a ticket purchased in Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been this big for more than two years.
Powerball’s jackpot now stands at an estimated $730 million annuity, $546 million lump-sum option for its next drawing at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. The game’s top prize was last won Sept. 16 with a ticket purchased in New York, and it hasn’t been this big for nearly two years.
Iowa Tickets That Came Close This Weekend
Three Iowa tickets were just one number away from a jackpot this weekend.
A ticket purchased at an eastern Iowa convenience store was just one number away from Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot, matching four of the first five numbers and the Mega Ball. That ticket, which won a $10,000 prize, was purchased at Kwik Star, 803 Seventh Ave. in Camanche.
And two Iowa tickets were just one number away from Saturday’s Powerball jackpot. They each won a prize of $50,000 by matching four of the first five numbers and the Powerball. They were purchased at Kwik Star, 3350 U.S. Highway 71 South in Spirit Lake; and Kum & Go, 2303 Muscatine Ave. in Iowa City.
The three prizes must be claimed directly from the Iowa Lottery. With its offices closed on weekends and on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Tuesday is the earliest that the prizes can be claimed.
What’s That About ‘Coverage’?
By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. (The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because there are about 292.2 million ways that the numbers in the game can be combined to make a play. And in Mega Millions, the odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.6 million because that’s how many ways the numbers in the game can be combined in a play.)
Nearly 30 percent of the combinations were purchased in Saturday’s Powerball drawing. And, the coverage estimate for Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing is about 36 percent.
General Pointers
Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won’t be in the running for that night’s giant prize.
And, please remember to play responsibly. You only need one ticket to have a chance to win.
We also want everyone to be safe and continue following social distancing guidelines when you’re out and about. Think about buying your tickets if you’re already out running errands so you don’t have to make a special trip to get them.
(I’ve posted lots of other jackpot details here on the blog this month, so feel free to check those out. I’m doing my best to keep providing new angles as the jackpots continue to grow.)
Hi, Linda. If you match only the Powerball number, you win $4. If you match only the Mega Ball number, you win $2. Here are direct links to the pages on the Iowa Lottery's website where you can see all the prize levels available in both games. For Powerball: https://www.ialottery.com/Pages/Games-Online/Powerball.aspx. And for Mega Millions:
https://www.ialottery.com/Pages/Games-Online/MegaMillions.aspx.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | January 19, 2021 at 08:47 AM
how much if anything do you win if you have the powerball number or the mega ball number?
Posted by: linda Hurt | January 17, 2021 at 06:20 PM