Powerball Jackpot Climbs to $143 Million; $1 Million Power Play Prize Won

Sunday, April 05, 2009 posted 09:45 AM EDT

(Powerball) The jackpot in America’s favorite lottery game continues to climb higher and higher. Even though the grand prize was not awarded Saturday evening, a lucky ticket in Pennsylvania (1) matched all 5 white numbers with the Power Play and won $1 million cash. This was a result of the new Power Play feature that turns any match 5 white ball win with the Power Play into a 5X multiplier and pushes the prize up to $1 million cash! Three other lucky tickets in Connecticut (1), Wisconsin (1), and New Mexico (1) matched all 5 white ball numbers without the multiplier for a sensational $200,000 cash win on each. In addition, 929,332 tickets across the nation won a total of $7,462,751 in prizes.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Saturday’s drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $143 million!

The cash option for the Wednesday, April 8th drawing will be an estimated $79.4 million.

The numbers drawn Saturday night were 14, 21, 50, 57, 58 and the Powerball was 7. The Power Play multiplier was 3.

Other prizes won Saturday evening included thirty-three tickets that matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Eleven additional tickets at this prize level were also wisely purchased with the Power Play option that multiplied winnings 3 times to $30,000 cash!

A total of 174,970 winning Powerball tickets multiplied their prizes by 3 Saturday. Players were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings from 2 to 5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing an animated spinner presents that night’s multiplier.

Players should carefully check their tickets after every draw. Even if there are no jackpot winners there are always tens of thousands of winners at other prize levels.

Players purchased $36,026,356 in Powerball and Power Play tickets between Thursday and Saturday night.

The lotteries sold more than $2.56 billion in Powerball tickets in FY08. That translates into more than $743 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Related Links
	Lottery News & Stories
	Latest Results
	Search Past Winning Numbers