Earlier this month, an Oregon player won the grand prize from America’s popular lottery game, Powerball. At the time, the player triumphed by securing the mind-blowing $1.33 billion jackpot, representing the fourth-largest prize in the history of the game.
Not even two weeks have passed since the jackpot started to grow from the standard $20 million value. Surviving the draw on Wednesday, April 17, enabled the grand prize to get closer to the mouth-watering $100 million.
The estimated jackpot for Powerball’s upcoming drawing is $98 million, in case the winner decides to accept annual installments. If somebody wins the jackpot on the upcoming drawing, they can instead collect a lump cash sum of $45.8 million, which is a far cry from the staggering $100 million but still life-changing, to say the least.
The winning numbers from Wednesday’s drawing included white balls 24, 29, 44, 47 and 54, as well as red Powerball 2. While nobody guessed correctly all the winning numbers, one customer hit a second-tier prize by guessing all five white balls. This granted them a $1 million prize.
Three lottery players who guessed correctly four white balls together with the red Powerball collected a $50,000 prize each, while one lucky player took home a $100,000 Power Play prize.
As usual, the biggest number of prizes were within the lowest tier. Nearly 250,000 lottery players won $4 each, while more than 95,000 people took home an $8 Power Play prize each.
The upcoming drawing of the Powerball is scheduled for Saturday, April 20, 2024.
Mega Millions Jackpot on the Rise
Similar to Powerball, the jackpot from Mega Millions also dropped recently. Late last month, one New Jersey player scored the game’s historic jackpot, by guessing correctly the drawn winning numbers, 7, 11, 22, 29, 38 and Mega Ball 4. As a result, they hit the mind-blowing $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot. The grand prize marked the game’s fifth-largest jackpot.
Now, as the grand prize from Powerball continues to grow, so does the jackpot from Mega Millions. With the lottery game’s next drawing scheduled for Friday, April 19, the estimated jackpot is at $178 million. A cash option for the game’s jackpot is the whopping $79.6 million.
The grand prize survived the Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday. Surprisingly, no one collected a million-dollar prize too. However, 15 lucky players took home $10,000 each, while three went home with a $40,000 Megaplier prize each.