Powerball Jackpot Surges to $173 Million

Thursday, February 26, 2009 posted 10:50 AM EST

The jackpot keeps getting bigger and bigger. Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, Powerball had some other big winners. Eight lucky tickets sold in Arizona (1), Florida (1), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (2), and Tennessee (1) won $200,000 each by matching all 5 white ball numbers without the Power Play!

The jackpot for the Saturday, February 28th drawing will be $173 million with the cash option at $92.5 million.

The numbers drawn Wednesday evening were 17, 32, 42, 49, 56, and the Powerball was 11. The Power Play multiplier was 4.

Thirty-five tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Eight additional tickets of that prize level had the Power Play and had the prize multiplied by 4 for a $40,000 cash win! A total of 975,909 tickets across the nation won more than $8.4 million in prizes playing America’s favorite game.

A total of 177,866 winning Powerball tickets multiplied their prize by 4 Wednesday. Players were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for $1. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings from 2-5 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 $38,912,795 in Powerball and Power Play tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.

The lotteries sold $2.56 billion in Powerball tickets in fiscal year 2008. That translates into over $743 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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