Powerball Bounces Up To $320 Million Ahead Of March 23 Drawing

Powerball Bounces Up To $320 Million Ahead Of March 23 Drawing

Powerball officials announced a hefty jackpot of $320 million for Saturday’s drawing when no one selected the six winning numbers Wednesday night.

However, three winners in different states did select five correct numbers and were each awarded $1 million, according to the Powerball website.

Ticket are currently sold in 42 states, Washington D.C., and the US Virgin Islands.

Official outlets can be located here.

Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175 million. Putting these odds into perspective, a ticket -buyer in the US is far more likely to be squashed to death by a toppling vending machine (1 in 112 million) or being struck by lighting (1 in 1 million). An audit by the IRS comes in at more sobering odds of 1 in 100.

Powerball sales nevertheless had topped $90 million leading up to last Wednesday’s drawing, the highest sales figure so far for 2013. The $320 million jackpot is the sixth highest jackpot in the game’s history.

The highest jackpot of all time was $526 million and was awarded in November of 2012. National lottery sales had ballooned to over $563 million over four days. The prize was split between two winners in Arizona and Missouri.

Dave Honeywell of Virginia won the last Powerball jackpot of $217 million on February 6. He accepted a one-time cash payout of $136.4 million before taxes. Both he and his wife work for the Department of Defense and decided to keep their jobs for the time being.

Virginia K-12 schools benefited from Virginia’s second-highest jackpot award in state history when Powerball ticket sales for the February 6 drawing raised more than $4 million.

The cash-out option for the current $320 million Powerball jackpot would still amount to a king’s ransom of $198.3 million.

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What would you do if you won?

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