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This Saturday, the Powerball drawing ended a streak of 42 consecutive drawings - more than three months - without a jackpot winner, awarding a historic prize of 1.8 billion dollars, which will now be shared by two winning tickets sold in the states of Missouri and Texas.
As often happens, the winners have not yet been publicly identified, which fuels anticipation and speculation regarding their personal stories, which may eventually come to light—or not.
With the final ticket sales, the total amount of the grand prize reached $1.787 billion, establishing itself as the second largest lottery prize in U.S. history, surpassed only by the record of $2.040 billion won in California in November 2022.
This was confirmed by the Association of Multi-State Lotteries, which is responsible for managing Powerball.
Each winner will have the option to receive their share through an annual payment of approximately 893.5 million dollars in 30 installments over 29 years, or accept a lump sum payment of 410.3 million dollars, both amounts before taxes.
The winning numbers from Saturday were 11, 23, 44, 61, and 62, with the red Powerball number 17 and a Power Play multiplier of 2.
The previous streak without winners began in May and spanned 41 draws without success.
During that period, the jackpot grew progressively with each unsuccessful draw, driven precisely by the design of the game, which favors these multimillion-dollar accumulations.
As Powerball officials point out, those low odds are "designed to generate large jackpots," thereby increasing the excitement and appeal to the public.
Millionaire distribution: Other lucky winners in the draw
In addition to the historic jackpot, the drawing also left a wide distribution of smaller prizes across various locations in the country:
Winners of 2 million dollars (Couple 5 + Power Play): Kansas (KS) and Texas (TX).
These players correctly picked all five white numbers and used the Power Play option, which doubled their prize from one million to two million dollars.
Winners of 1 million dollars (Couple 5):
A total of 18 tickets sold in 13 states won prizes of one million dollars. The states and the number of winners by jurisdiction were as follows:
-California (CA): 2 winners.
-Colorado (CO): 1 winner.
-Florida (FL): 1 winner.
-Illinois (IL): 2 winners.
-Kansas (KS): 1 winner.
-Massachusetts (MA): 1 winner.
-Michigan (MI): 1 winner.
-New Jersey (NJ): 1 winner.
-New York (NY): 2 winners.
-Ohio (OH): 2 winners.
-Oregon (OR): 1 winner.
-Texas (TX): 2 winners.
Washington (WA): 1 winner.
And now what?
As is customary in these cases, after the winners are announced, the Powerball jackpot resets.
For the next drawing, the jackpot starts again at a base of 20 million dollars, which can increase if no ticket matches the six numbers in the upcoming drawing.
Tickets, which cost two dollars, are available in 45 states across the country, as well as in Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, making Powerball one of the most widespread and participatory lotteries in the country.
Beyond the numbers and probabilities, this type of prize rekindles the collective interest in gambling and the possibility of a radical change in life overnight.
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