Powerball Jackpot Reaches $40 Million; Two $1 Million Power Play Prizes Won

Thursday, January 14, 2010 posted 10:44 AM EST

(Powerball) The jackpot in America’s favorite lottery game continues to grow. Even though the grand prize was not awarded Wednesday evening, two lucky tickets in Kentucky (1) and Tennessee (1) matched all 5 white numbers with the Power Play and won $1 million cash each. This was a result of the new Power Play feature that turns any match 5 white ball win with the Power Play into a 5X multiplier and pushes the prize up to $1 million!

Two additional tickets in Missouri (1) and North Carolina (1) matched all 5 white numbers without the Power Play and won $200,000 each. In addition, 459,003 tickets across the nation won a total of $5,526,968 in prizes.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Wednesday’s drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $40 million!

The cash option for the Saturday, January 16th drawing will be an estimated $19.3 million.

The numbers drawn Saturday night were 8, 11, 15, 32, 50 and the Powerball was 27. The Power Play multiplier was 3.

Other prizes won Wednesday evening included 11 tickets that matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Six additional tickets at this prize level were also wisely purchased with the Power Play option that multiplied their winnings 3 times to $30,000 cash!

A total of 96,515 winning Powerball tickets multiplied their prizes by 3 Wednesday. Players were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings from 2 to 5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing an animated spinner presents 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 $19,183,243 in Powerball and Power Play tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night. The lotteries sold more than $2.56 billion in Powerball tickets in FY09. That translates into more than $743 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 31 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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