Powerball Mania goes back a billion dollars

You can’t win if you don’t play. But a lot of people play and don’t win, leading to an estimated $1 billion jackpot for Monday night’s draw.

No one matched all six numbers on Saturday night when the jackpot was $825 million. This creates an opportunity for someone to win the second-biggest jackpot in US history, according to KIMT, which claims the biggest winner ever was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won by three ticket holders in 2016.

Click here for an Associated Press list of the greatest American Powerball winners of all time.

Although no one won the Saturday night draw, several people approached. KIMT says a Florida ticket holder matched all five white balls in Saturday’s draw and increased the prize to $2 million by including the game’s “Power Play” feature. Six tickets won a prize of a million dollars by matching five white balls, including two in California, two in Michigan, one in Maryland and one in Texas.

There were also seventeen winners of $100,000 each and 80 winners of $50,000.

The people of Iowa have had enough luck with the various Iowa Lottery games recently, including earlier this month when a Mapleton man won $1 million, a boost well needed after a year of struggle for Darryl Ingram, a farmer who had faced a heart attack and an additional health scare in 2022.

The last time the world played for this kind of money was last July during the Mega Millions. A ticket to Illinois brought in $1.337 billion, which CNN said was only the second-biggest ever in that game.

Meanwhile, it’s been almost six months since anyone hit all six numbers in the Powerball draw, but this Monday night could definitely change someone’s luck. I hope it’s you!