Powerball Jackpot Nearing Record Size

The Powerball jackpot could set a national lottery record if nobody hits it this weekend, but director Charles Strutt said the estimated $100 million prize will likely be claimed before it has a chance to rise.

“If nobody wins, that puts us in unknown territory. We’d probably start with a conservative number and watch it rise from there. It could just take off. It would be at least in the $130 million range,” Strutt said.

The nation’s largest lottery jackpot was $118.8 million in the California lottery. The prize was split 10 ways in April 1991.

The $100 million Powerball prize is the multistate game’s third highest jackpot, the largest being $111 million won by a Wisconsin teacher in the summer of 1993. There also was a $101 million jackpot claimed last November.

Strutt said at least 50 million of the $1 Powerball tickets will be sold before Saturday’s drawing. Each ticket has one chance in 55 million to win.

If 50 million were sold and each had a different combination of numbers, the chances of somebody winning the prize would be 90 percent. But many tickets have the same combinations. Strutt estimated that only about 60 percent of all possible combinations will be covered, meaning there is a 40 percent chance that nobody will win.

“Saturday night should do it,” he said.

Powerball players pick five numbers from a set of 45 and a second number from a separate set of 45.

Thirty cents of each Powerball ticket are devoted to the jackpot and 20 cents go to secondary prizes, including the runner up $100,000 prize for hitting just the first five numbers. Participating states get 32 cents, the retailer gets 5 cents and 13 cents goes to advertising, administration and other costs.

None of the tickets sold for Wednesday night’s drawing matched all six numbers drawn, which were 16-19-20-21-35 and Powerball 33.

There were 21 winners of the $100,000 prize Wednesday. There were four each in Iowa and Minnesota, three in Missouri, two each in Arizona, District of Columbia and Wisconsin and one each in Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Oregon.

Powerball tickets are sold in Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.