Two Iowa tickets came SO CLOSE in last night’s big Powerball® drawing, with each just a number away from having at least a share of the jackpot.
And not to be left out of the story, the Mega Millions® jackpot was raised to $500 million for that game’s next drawing tonight. It’s just the third time that the jackpots in the two games have topped $500 million at the same time.
Details from Last Night’s Powerball Drawing
Two Iowa tickets hit big in last night’s Powerball drawing, with one of them winning a $2 million prize and the other winning a $100,000 prize.
The $2 million-winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 201 Eighth St. in Gladbrook. The ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Powerball to initially win a $1 million prize. But whoever bought the ticket added the Power Play® option to the play, which multiplies prizes at the Match 5 level to $2 million.
The $100,000-winning ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 406 Iowa Highway 3 in Marcus. That ticket matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to initially win a $50,000 prize. But whoever bought the ticket added the Power Play option to the play, which multiplied the prize to $100,000.
Last night’s winning Powerball numbers were: 2-24-34-53-58 and Powerball 13. The Power Play number was 2. No one matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, so the big prize grows to an estimated $725 million annuity, $366.2 million lump-sum option, for the game’s next drawing on Wednesday. That’s the 7th-largest jackpot in the history of the game.
The Next Mega Millions Drawing is Tonight
The Mega Millions jackpot for that game’s drawing tonight is an estimated $500 million annuity, $251.0 million lump-sum option.
Remember that the deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings is 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.
The Jackpots Started Growing at About the Same Time
An interesting point about the current jackpot run is that the giant prizes have been growing for nearly the same amount of time. The Mega Millions jackpot was last won on April 18, while Powerball was last hit on April 19.
And although they’re both really getting up there, the Powerball jackpot is higher. What’s making the difference?
Powerball has a three drawings each week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, while Mega Millions has two drawings a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. That extra drawing each week for Powerball means that game’s jackpot is growing more quickly.
Could One Person Win Both? Yes, but …
Would it be possible for one person to win both jackpots? The short answer is: Yes. But the odds of that happening are extremely long.
The odds of winning the jackpot in Mega Millions are about 1 in 302.6 million. The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million. (The odds are based upon the total number of combinations available to play in each game.)
To calculate the odds of winning both jackpots, you multiply 302.6 million by 292.2 million. The answer to that equation involves 15 zeroes: It’s about 1 in 88 quadrillion (that’s 88,000,000,000,000,000).
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