Powerball Jackpot Reaches $85 Million

The Powerball jackpot continues to keep growing and growing. No one hit the jackpot Saturday, but 4 winning tickets in Colorado (1), DC (1), New Hampshire (1), and Oklahoma (1) each won $400,000 with the Power Play option. In total, 517,049 players across the nation won more than $5.0 million in prizes in America's Game.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Saturday's drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $85 million.

The cash option for the Wednesday, May 3rd drawing will be an estimated $38.3 million.

The numbers drawn Saturday were 12, 23, 25, 32, 38, and the Powerball was 27. The Power Play multiplier was 2.

One ticket correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000. The winning ticket was purchased in Pennsylvania (1). The four lucky tickets in Colorado (1), DC (1), New Hampshire (1), and Oklahoma (1) that matched 5 also had the Power Play option and multiplied the $200,000 prize by 2 for a total win of $400,000.

Twenty-six tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Seven additional winning tickets at that prize level also had the Power Play option multiplying the winnings 2 times for a total of $20,000.

More than 92,000 winning Powerball tickets multiplied the prizes by 2 Saturday. Winning players were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings by 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 more than $22 million in tickets between Wednesday and Saturday night. The lotteries have sold more than $2.4 billion in Powerball tickets so far in fiscal year 2006. That translates into approximately $700 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.