Powerball Jackpot Grows to $40 Million
UNITED STATES – The Powerball jackpot continues togrow. Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, 369,087players across the nation won a total of more than $4.1 million in prizesin America's favorite Game.
Because no one correctly matched all six numbers the jackpot will growto an estimated $40 million for Saturday night's drawing.
The cash option for the Saturday, July 1st drawing will be an estimated$17.7 million.
The numbers drawn Wednesday were 2, 8, 16, 45, 51 and the Powerball was32. The Power Play multiplier was 5.
Three lucky tickets in DC (1), Louisiana (1), and Tennessee (1)correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000. Twenty-threetickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Fiveadditional winners of that prize category also had the Power Play optionthat multiplied the win 5 times for a total of $50,000!
More than 72,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 5Wednesday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play optionfor one dollar. With Power Play you multiply any winnings from 2-5 times,except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun toselect that night's multiplier.
Players should carefully check their tickets after every draw. Even ifthere are no jackpot winners there are always tens of thousands of winnersat other prize levels.
Players purchased more than $17.7 million in tickets between Sunday andWednesday night.
The lotteries sold over $2.8 billion in Powerball tickets in fiscalyear 2006. That translates into approximately $800 million for worthwhilestate projects.
Powerball is now played in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and theU.S. Virgin Islands.
2006-06-30
