Big wins playing the lottery tend to come in bunches for some reason. Last week was a prime example as a New York Powerball winner was just one of three such wins.
Someone bought the winning ticket worth $94 million at a liquor store in Saratoga County early last week. That ticket wasn’t the biggest win of the week, however.
Details on the New York Powerball winner
At the end of last week, the ticket’s buyer had yet to claim the prize. The New York Lottery said that the ticket matching all five numbers and the Powerball was sold at Minogue’s Beverage Center on Rte 9 in Malta.
The winning numbers were: 10, 17, 31, 51 and 53.
The Powerball was one with a 2x Power Play.
The ticket has a cash value of $75.1 million if the winner opts to take the lump sum. The annuity option would pay out a total of $94 million over multiple decades.
It’s unclear how soon the winner may actually enjoy the prize, however. New York lottery claim centers remain closed to walk-in traffic, and appointments are backlogged by a couple of months at some locations.
The grand prize winner wasn’t the only person to get lucky in last Wednesday’s drawing. A Powerball player in Texas matched the five numbers but missed out on the Powerball for $2 million.
Closer to the Empire State, a New Jersey player has a $50,000 prize to claim. That ticket matched the Powerball and four of the five numbers.
The biggest recent prize came out of Wisconsin and another multistate lottery game. Last Tuesday, the Mega Millions drawing produced a grand prize winner of $119 million.
It could be a few weeks until either game offers a similar payout for winners. Multistate lottery games aren’t immune to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reduced jackpots, roll increases for Powerball
Due to a drop in ticket sales, the Multistate Lottery Corporation cut the value of initial jackpots and roll increases for both Mega Millions and Powerball in April. Initial jackpots for both games start at just $20 million.
Each time a drawing happens without a winner, the corporation adds $2 million to those pots. For example, since no one won Saturday’s drawing, the Powerball jackpot for Wednesday sits at $22 million.
At this rate, it will be nearly five months before the Powerball jackpot reaches its recent height again. That’s if no one wins it during that time, of course.
Mega Millions’ jackpot also currently sits at $22 million for Tuesday’s drawing.
While neither game boasts a jackpot as impressive as those won last week, it’s still a life-changing amount of money for most lottery players.
