Powerball Jackpot Grows to $785M, Fourth-Largest in Game History

Posted on: September 24, 2023, 09:41h. 

Last updated on: September 26, 2023, 02:20h.

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

No Powerball ticket matched the six drawn numbers last night. Saturday marked the 28th consecutive drawing without a single ticket matching all six winning numbers.

Powerball lottery jackpot California
Powerball numbers are seen during a drawing in December 2017. The Powerball jackpot for the game’s next drawing on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, is an estimated $785 million. (Image: AP)

Saturday’s numbers were 1-12-20-33-66, and the red Powerball was 21. The Power Play multiplier was 2x. But with no ticket hitting the game’s top prize, the jackpot rolls over again to an estimated value of $785 million for the next drawing on Monday night. The one-time cash value option is a projected $367 million.

Only three times has the Powerball jackpot grown to higher amounts than the current snowballing prize.

Powerball’s richest prize ever won was a $2.04 billion jackpot that hit on Nov. 7, 2022, by a single ticket sold in California. In January 2016, three tickets sold in California, Florida, and Tennessee split a $1.586 billion jackpot. And on July 19 this summer, a player in California hit the jackpot for $1.08 billion.

The odds of winning the jackpot are just one in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning a prize are one in 24.9. The minimal prize of $4 is won by matching the red Powerball.

Each Powerball play costs $2. About 68 cents goes towards the cash-sum jackpot. The advertised jackpot is for the annuity option paid out over 30 years.

California Player Wins $5.4M

Powerball officials said there were more than 1.5 million winning tickets during last night’s drawing, including three tickets sold in California, New York, and Florida that matched all five white balls for $1 million. Another ticket sold in Michigan matched all five white balls and purchased the Power Play to double the win to $2 million.

The California ticket that matched the five white balls was worth $5.4 million because the state pays out its Powerball prizes on a pari-mutuel basis. The Powerball jackpot is pari-mutuel in nature, where the game is played in all 45 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. But all other Powerball prizes are fixed amounts, with the lone exception being in California.

That’s because, in 1991, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Lottery Act only authorized games “in which the lottery operator has no stake in the outcome of the game or vested interest in how many winners and losers there are.” Because of the ruling, the California State Lottery divvies revenue to all lower-level prize tiers.

“Each prize category receives a certain percentage of the overall prize pool, and then that money is split between all of the winners in each category,” a Powerball explanation read.

Sometimes, mainly when a Powerball player in California hits the five white balls but not the red Powerball in early Powerball runs, the $1 million prize can actually be less than the fixed win amount in other states because of the parimutuel mandate.

Medical Workers Win $1M

In related lottery news, 15 medical workers in Pennsylvania employed by UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) recently won a $1 million Mega Millions prize. The colleagues told the Pennsylvania Lottery that they regularly play together and call themselves the Million Dollar Medicals.

Their $1 million prize came during the July 28 Mega Millions drawing. Jackie Burdick, one of the participants, says the group was formed about 20 years ago with just a few medical workers playing together. She said the $1 million prize was the first time they won big.