California Powerball tickets nearly match numbers in Saturday drawing; jackpot hits $1B
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Two Powerball lottery tickets matching five of six numbers in Saturday's drawing — but not the red powerball — were sold in California last week, state lottery officials said, and the jackpot grew to $1 billion for Monday's drawing.
One of the two tickets with five of the six numbers was sold at a liquor store in Pico Rivera, in Southern California. The other was sold at the Mad Dog Cafe in Markleeville, a town of about 200 people south of Lake Tahoe in Northern California. The California Lottery said each ticket was worth $552,641.
Five other players elsewhere also matched five numbers — two in Michigan, one in Maryland, one in Florida and one in Texas.
The grand prize for Saturday in the multi-state game was estimated at $825 million. The next drawing, Monday night, will be for a massive $1 billion, according to a statement by Powerball.
The winning numbers Saturday night were: white balls 19, 31, 40, 46, 57 and the red powerball 23.
The increased jackpot will remain the fifth-largest in U.S. history behind another Powerball prize and three Mega Millions lottery game jackpots. The biggest prize was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won by three ticketholders in 2016.
Although the advertised top prize will be an estimated $1 billion, that is for winners who receive their winnings through an annuity paid over 29 years. Winners almost always opt for cash, which for Monday’s drawing will be an estimated $497.3 million.
Players who missed out on the latest grand prize in the 30-year-old lottery shouldn't immediately toss away their receipts.
Another 17 tickets won a $150,000 prize while there were 80 winners of $50,000 each. More than 3.8 million tickets won cash prizes totaling above $38 million, Powerball said.
It has been nearly three months since anyone hit all six numbers and took the lottery’s top prize, with a $206.9 million jackpot win in Pennsylvania on Aug. 3. Thanks to Powerball’s long odds of one in 292.2 million, there have now been 37 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 2 California Powerball tickets match 5 of 6 numbers; jackpot hits $1B
