Powerball Jackpot Reaches $290 Million The incredible jackpot in America's favorite lottery game is still up for grabs! Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, 1,751,818 players across the nation won a total of more than $16.6 million in prizes.
Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Wednesday's drawing the jackpot will reach an estimated $290 million for Saturday's draw. The cash option for the Saturday, October 15th drawing will be an estimated $141.9 million. The numbers drawn Wednesday night were 4, 9, 18, 51, 54 and the Powerball was 10. The Power Play multiplier was 5. Fourteen players in the states of Arizona (4), Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska (2), Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and West Virginia matched all 5 white balls and won $200,000. One player in Pennsylvania not only won at this prize level, but also very wisely purchased the Power Play option multiplying their winnings 5 times for a total of $1 million cash! Ninety-one players matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Fifteen additional players who won at this prize level also purchased the Power Play and had their $10,000 winnings multiplied by 5 to $50,000! More than 187,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prizes by 5 Wednesday. They 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 a wheel is spun to select 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 more than $69.8 million in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night. The lotteries sold more than $2 billion in Powerball tickets in FY05. That translates into more than $600 million for worthwhile state projects. Powerball is now played in 27 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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