No win for $100M; lottery still rising|[01/04/07]
Published 12:00 am Thursday, January 4, 2007
None of the $1 tickets sold for the more than $100 million Powerball game Wednesday night matched all six numbers drawn, which will be driving the prize up to $115 million or so for Saturday’s drawing.
Bonita Miller, a manager of Chevron Interstate Food Stop, just across the Louisiana border on Interstate 20, said 18,000 Powerball tickets were sold at her store before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, the deadline to purchase tickets before the 10 p.m. drawing.
Since no one could claim the $102.1 million jackpot, Miller said she expects even more people to come in to get their hands on the winning ticket.
“Once the news gets out, people usually start coming in,” she said. “We were busy last night.”
Wednesday’s winning numbers were 10, 12, 24, 35 and 55, Powerball 31 and Power Play 3.
Players matching all five numbers and the Powerball would have won or shared the jackpot.
The multistate, multimillion-dollar Powerball from the Louisiana Lottery has jackpots that start at $15 million and increase until at least one ticket has five of the numbers drawn in any order and the specific powerball number. If more than one ticket has the correct combination, the jackpot is divided accordingly. Odds for the top prize are about 1 in 137 million. Drawings are every Wednesday and Saturday.
Tickets that match the first five numbers, but miss the Powerball, win $200,000 each. Six of those were sold in Delaware, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee and two in Missouri. Power Play Match 5 winning tickets were sold in Indiana and South Carolina. Overall, 599,639 players shared more than $5.1 million in prizes short of the jackpot.
The advertised Powerball jackpot is an estimate of the annuity amount, which is paid in 30 graduated annual installments that increase by 4 percent each year. A lump sum payment is optional, and would be $55.2 million before taxes based on a $115 million prize pool.
Twenty-five states in addition to Louisiana participate in the Powerball game. Mississippi does not participate in any lottery.