Delayed Powerball Numbers Released for Record $2.04B Jackpot

Posted on: November 8, 2022, 09:13h. 

Last updated on: November 8, 2022, 04:52h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

Powerball’s winning six numbers were supposed to be drawn at 10:59 pm EST Monday, but the drawing was delayed by nearly 10 hours.

Powerball jackpot delay glitch $2 billion
Customers in a Brooklyn grocery store stand in line to purchase their Powerball tickets on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. The Powerball drawing didn’t occur until Tuesday because of a tech glitch. (Image: AP)

Lottery officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which operates the interstate lottery game, cited a delay with one of its participating lotteries. MUSL said the unidentified lottery incurred technical problems with submitting its tickets.

When Powerball was finally drawn Tuesday morning, the six winning numbers were 10-33-41-47-56, and the red Powerball was 10.

Powerball said Tuesday that determining the number of winners, including whether any ticket matched all six numbers to win the jackpot, will take several hours to compile and determine.

If no one hit the jackpot, the Monday drawing, which became Tuesday’s drawing, would mark the 41st straight drawing where not a single ticket matched the six winning numbers.

$2B Eclipsed

For the first time in the history of the United States, a lottery offered up a prize upward of $2 billion. Powerball estimated its jackpot to be $1.9 billion for the Monday draw. But unprecedented sales pushed the value of the 30-year annuity to $2.04 billion.

The previous all-time richest lottery jackpot ever won was a $1.586 billion prize that three lucky Powerball winners split during a January 2016 drawing. The single richest lottery prize in US history came in October 2018, when a Mega Millions player in South Carolina won $1.537 billion.

The current Powerball jackpot is nearly half a billion dollars more than the previous all-time lottery records. It could balloon even more should none of the more than 150 million Powerball tickets sold for the Monday drawing fail to match the six numbers revealed on Tuesday.

Delay Explained

MUSL said the Powerball drawing was postponed because of the heightened sales and technical problems incurred with an unidentified state lottery.

Powerball has stringent security requirements to protect the integrity of the game and remains committed to holding a drawing that gives all players a fair chance to win,” a MUSL statement read.

MUSL explained that one of its participating lotteries failed to properly submit its Powerball tickets sold before the lottery game’s deadline. MUSL said each of its 48 participating lotteries must submit their sales and plays before the six numbers can be drawn.

MUSL added that it will not publicly identify the lottery that incurred the issues that resulted in the Powerball drawing being delayed. But the postponement might cause some players to lose faith in the game’s integrity.

Though rare, a Powerball drawing delay isn’t exceptional. As Casino.org earlier reported, the lottery in April delayed its drawing by more than four hours. MUSL said the delay was needed for “additional processing time” to satisfy the game’s security protocols. The lottery did not expand on what specific protocols had not been met in time for the scheduled drawing.