Saturday night’s winning Powerball numbers are 5-25-26-44-66. The Powerball number is 9.
We have a winner!
Saturday night’s Powerball drawing produced a winner of the $429.6 million jackpot, according to lottery officials. The ticket was sold in New Jersey.
The jackpot had swelled to one of the largest ever after 18 drawings.
All told, more than 3 million tickets claimed smaller prizes ranging from a few dollars to $1 million.
The pot has been growing since March 2, after a 67-year-old man in Florida claimed the previous Powerball jackpot of $291.4 million.
Powerball numbers are drawn each week on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 10:59 pm ET.
Once the jackpot reached over $400 million, it made the list of the largest lottery jackpots of all time.
If no one had won after Saturday’s drawing, the jackpot would have gone up to $525 million, according to the Texas Lottery.
The last jackpot to reach such a high level eventually grew into the largest in U.S. history — $1.6 billion.
That one garnered a lot of attention. In January, three winning tickets were sold in Chino Hills, California; Munford, Tennessee; and Melbourne Beach, Florida.
While the jackpot is advertised as being worth $415 million, a winner only gets that amount if they pick the annuity — the money is paid out over 29 years.
The lump sum option, which is more popular, has a cash value of $269.7 million.
When the pot grows, more and more people rush out to pick their numbers. But the odds of winning aren’t great.
Individual tickets have only a 1 in 292 million chance of having the jackpot-winning six-digit combination.
Even just guessing the Powerball number, which will get you $4, is hard — the odds are 1 in 38.
