Louise White won February's $336.4 million Powerball jackpot, sleeping with the winning ticket in her Bible until coming forward to claim the sixth-largest U.S. prize, a family representative said. (AP)
Get your tickets — the Powerball jackpot has grown to $320 million for Wednesday’s drawing, the fourth-largest prize in the lottery's history.
If taken as a lump sum, the cash value of the jackpot is $213.3 million, according to powerball.com. The prize grew after no one matched all six numbers in the multistate lottery drawing on Saturday. Although no one hit all six winning numbers — 4, 13, 39, 46, 51 and 1 as the Powerball — five tickets won $1 million because they matched five of six winning numbers. Those tickets were sold in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The national drawing, which is held in 42 states and the District of Columbia, is set to be the fourth-largest in Powerball history. In 2006, the top prize of $365 million went to eight workers in a ConAgra meatpacking plant in Lincoln, Neb., New York Lottery spokeswoman Christy Calicchia told FoxNews.com. (The largest all-time U.S. lottery winning occurred in March when three winning tickets split a Mega Millions prize of $656 million.)
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175 million, while the odds of winning any prize — including $4 for selecting the Powerball — are 1 in 31, according to the lottery’s website. No one has won big in Powerball since June 23, when a couple from Connecticut won $60 million, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Each Powerball ticket costs $2 and drawings are held twice weekly at 10:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Five numbered balls are selected from 59 white balls and one red ball — the Powerball — is drawn from 35 balls. Sales of tickets are stopped at least 59 minutes before the local drawing time and winners can select an annuitized prize paid in 30 payments or a lump sum payment, according to its website.
In April, three Maryland public school employees won a share of the record Mega Millions $656 jackpot, ending a mystery that involved a McDonald's employee who claimed she had the golden ticket.
Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino said the anonymous employees would each receive $34.997 million after taxes. The trio bought a total of 60 tickets at three different locations throughout the state, or a total investment of $20 per person for the $218.6 million portion of the grand prize.
At the time, the winners — a woman in her 20s, another in her 50s and a man in his 40s who referred to themselves as "The Three Amigos" — said they planned to purchase new homes. One had planned a backpacking trip through Europe, while another intended to finance his daughter’s college education. A third winner hoped to tour Italy's wine country, Martino said.
The announcement ended a two-week mystery following the record-breaking, $656 million drawing on March 30. Mirlande Wilson, a single mother of seven who worked at a Baltimore-area McDonald’s, claimed to have one of three winning tickets and went as far as alienating her co-workers by claiming she bought it separately from tickets she purchased for a pool of 15 co-workers.
The two other winning tickets were sold in Kansas and Illinois.
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