Powerball® ticket sales has increased the estimated annuitized jackpot from $450 million to $485 million for Wednesday night’s drawing. The jackpot’s estimated cash value is now $327.7 million. Tomorrow night’s jackpot started as a $40 million prize on Dec. 3, 2014 and is the result of 20 drawings with no jackpot winner. This is the fifth largest jackpot of any U.S. lottery game on record.
Texas joined the multistate Powerball game in 2010 and had its first Powerball jackpot winner in 2013 when Paul McDowell of Ravenna claimed the $40 million jackpot from the May 29, 2013 drawing. Since January 2014, Texas has had 24 Powerball second-tier prize winners of $1 million or $2 million. Second-tier Powerball prizes are won by matching five numbers but not the Powerball number.
Powerball is played by choosing five numbers from one to 59 and one Powerball number from one to 35. Players win the jackpot by matching all five of the white ball numbers drawn and the red Powerball number. For $1 more per play, the Power Play® feature is added and the non-jackpot prize winnings increase. Powerball drawings occur every Wednesday and Saturday at 9:59 p.m. CT.
About the Texas Lottery®
Beginning with the first ticket sold in 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated $22 billion in revenue for the state and distributed $44 billion in prizes to lottery players. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $17 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas. As authorized by the Texas Legislature, certain Texas Lottery revenues benefit state programs including the Fund for Veterans’ Assistance. The Texas Lottery provides several entertaining games for lottery players including Powerball®, Mega Millions®, Lotto Texas®, All or Nothing™, Texas Two Step®, Pick 3™, Daily 4™, Cash Five® and scratch-offs. For more information visit us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or at www.txlottery.org.
