Five tickets came just one red Powerball away from hitting the jackpot in Saturday’s (Aug. 8) drawing. With no grand prize winner, the Powerball jackpot rolls over for a 42nd consecutive time and inches closer to the $1 billion mark.
Saturday’s Powerball numbers were 5, 9, 35, 54, 63, and red Powerball 7. The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) reports that five plays matched all five white balls, but missed the red Powerball.
Four of the Match 5 winners won $1 million each, with the fifth ticket, sold in Texas, purchasing the optional $1 add-on Power Play to double their payout to $2 million. The four others were sold in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and New York.
Powerball challenges players with picking five white balls out of a pool ranging from 1 to 69. The Powerball pool ranges from 1 to 26. The odds of a ticket matching all six drawn numbers are 1 in 292.2 million.
MUSL operates Powerball on behalf of 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and, since late July, the United Kingdom.
Jackpot Tops $900 Million
No ticket has hit the Powerball jackpot since May 2, when two tickets, sold in Florida and Texas, split a $20 million prize. Monday’s (Aug. 10) Powerball drawing will be the 43rd drawing in the current jackpot run.
The jackpot now stands at an estimated $905 million, making it the eighth-richest prize in Powerball history, which dates back to 1992. The $905 million jackpot ranks 15th all-time in U.S. lottery gameplay.
Should a ticket match all six numbers on Monday night, the winner will have the choice of taking the $905 million paid out through 29 annual payments or a one-time cash option projected at $391.9 million.
Powerball is drawn every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 pm EST from the Powerball draw studio in Florida.
Saturday Wins
Along with the five Match 5 wins, the Aug. 8 Powerball drawing saw 44 tickets match four white balls and the red Powerball to win the game’s third-tier prize of $50,000. Twelve of those plays had the $1 Power Play, which tripled their payouts to $150,000 after the Power Play landed on 3X.
The Power Play multiplies non-jackpot prizes by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X. However, the Match 5 + Power Play is capped at 2X and is therefore always $2 million. The 10X multiplier is only in play when the advertised jackpot is $150 million or less.
To highlight how dismal the odds of 1 in 292.2 million are, you’re considerably more likely to die in a plane crash, which is about 1 in 11 million per lifetime of flying.
