Record Powerball jackpot could crown the first lottery billionaire
By Todd Northrop
For the third time in three days, the multi-state Powerball lottery jackpot has been raised to levels only dreamed about.
What if one person becomes a billionaire from a $2 lottery ticket? That's certainly a potential scenario tonight, when the numbers are drawn for the biggest lottery jackpot the world has ever seen.
Powerball offers two jackpot payment options: the $900 million jackpot prize paid over 29 years in 30 graduated payments; or the cash option, which is now estimated at $558 million.
And that may not be as big as it gets. We will only learn the final jackpot tally during the live draw show, which happens at 10:59 pm Eastern Time (7:59 pm Pacific) tonight.
Anyone looking to play Powerball in tonight's drawing and has not yet purchased their tickets should not hesitate to get to the store right away.
If you're not sure where to buy your tickets, head right over to the Lottery Places website to download the free app on your phone or Windows 8 or Windows 10 computer. Lottery Places is the only app on the market that will locate lottery retailers in every state and jurisdiction throughout the United States.
Due to the overwhelming demand to see the winning numbers tonight after the drawing, players are advised to first check USA Mega (www.usamega.com) because that website is more likely than most to be up and running. The crush of players checking their numbers all at once will completely disable most other websites.
"You can throw out the logic. You can throw out the statistics," Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery, said Friday. "We've never seen jackpots like this. It's a new experience for all of us."
So many people were buying Powerball tickets in Iowa on Friday that lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said some stores were running out of paper for tickets, leaving lottery workers scrambling to resupply the outlets.
Saturday's jackpot started at $40 million on Nov. 7, 2015, and is the result of 18 drawings with no jackpot winner.
When nobody won the jackpot on Wednesday night, the initial estimate for Saturday's drawing was established at $675 million, setting the world record for a lottery jackpot. Less than 12 hours later, that estimate was raised to $700 million. Less than 24 hours after that, MUSL again raised the official estimate to $800 million. And now, 24 hours later, they raised it once again to $900 million.
"This historic Powerball run has players across the country excited to join the fun, driving sales and the jackpot upward, all of which is a tremendous boost for the education programs funded by the Lottery," said Rebecca Hargrove, President and CEO of the Tennessee Lottery.
Although some lottery players (and some in the news media) believe Spain's El Gordo carries the largest lottery jackpot in the world, this is not the case. El Gordo, despite being termed a "lottery" is actually a raffle-style game, and the top prize is always divided between hundreds of winners. It is like a lottery scratch game in which is the total available prize pool of up to hundreds of millions of dollars is split between thousands of winners, and is not considered a "jackpot".
A jackpot is a large cash prize that accumulates until it is won, whereas a prize pool is the total value awarded to all players of a game. Thus, Powerball has the largest jackpot in world history, while El Gordo has the largest prize pool. Some may believe this is splitting hairs, but in the lottery industry it is an important distinction, and unfortunately one that the mainstream news media cares little to differentiate.
Powerball jackpots start at $40 million and roll until the jackpot is won. Players win the jackpot by matching five numbers from a field of 69 numbers and one Powerball number from a field of 26 numbers. Drawings are conducted each Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 pm Eastern Time.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
Saturday's Powerball jackpot currently stands as the largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States — and in the world. The amount of the jackpot may rise even further before the drawing Saturday night, as lotteries are typically conservative in their initial estimates, and brisk sales will certainly continue to push the jackpot estimate higher by draw time.
If nobody wins Saturday... well, let's not even go there.
- Powerball: $900 million, Jan. 9, 2016 - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Mega Millions: $656 million, Mar. 30, 2012 - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Mega Millions: $648 million, Dec. 17, 2013 - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $590.5 million, May 18, 2013 - Florida
- Powerball: $587.5 million, Nov. 28, 2012 - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $564.1 million, Feb. 11, 2015 - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Powerball: $448.4 million, Aug. 7, 2013 - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Powerball: $425.3 million, Feb. 19, 2014 - California
- Mega Millions: $414 million, Mar. 18, 2014 - Florida, Maryland
- Powerball: $399.4 million, Sep. 18, 2013 - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $390 million, Mar. 6, 2007 - Georgia, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $380 million, Jan. 4, 2011 - Idaho, Washington
- Powerball: $365 million, Feb. 18, 2006 - Nebraska
- The Big Game: $363 million, May 9, 2000 - Illinois, Michigan
- Powerball: $340 million, Oct. 19, 2005 - Oregon
- Powerball: $338.3 million, Mar. 23, 2013 - New Jersey
- Powerball: $337 million, Aug. 15, 2012 - Michigan
- Powerball: $336.4 million, Feb. 11, 2012 - Rhode Island
- Mega Millions: $336 million, Aug. 28, 2009 - California, New York
- The Big Game: $331 million, Apr. 16, 2002 - Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $330 million, Aug. 31, 2007 - Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia
- Mega Millions: $326 million, Nov. 4, 2014 - New York
- Mega Millions: $319 million, Mar. 25, 2011 - New York
- Mega Millions: $315 million, Nov. 15, 2005 - California
- Powerball: $314.9 million, Dec. 25, 2002 - West Virginia
For those keeping score, the number of jackpots in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 13
- Mega Millions: 10
- The Big Game: 2
The Big Game is the original name of Mega Millions, from the game's first drawing on Sep. 6, 1996 through May 14, 2002. The name was changed to Mega Millions starting with the May 17, 2002 drawing.
Top 25 cash value jackpots
Since many lottery winners collect their winnings in cash, the lump-sum payout is an important measure of what a winning ticket could be worth.
The new Powerball jackpot ranks as the largest lump-sum cash value jackpot in history.
- Powerball: $558 million cash, Jan. 9, 2016 ($900 million annuity) - Preliminary estimate, not won yet
- Mega Millions: $471 million cash, Mar. 30, 2012 ($656 million annuity) - Illinois, Kansas, Maryland
- Powerball: $384.7 million cash, Nov. 28, 2012 ($587.5 million annuity) - Arizona, Missouri
- Powerball: $381.1 million cash, Feb. 11, 2015 ($564.1 million annuity) - North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Texas
- Powerball: $370.9 million cash, May 18, 2013 ($590.5 million annuity) - Florida
- Mega Millions: $347.6 million cash, Dec. 17, 2013 ($648 million annuity) - California, Georgia
- Powerball: $258.2 million cash, Aug. 7, 2013 ($448.4 million annuity) - Minnesota, New Jersey (2)
- Mega Millions: $240 million cash, Jan. 4, 2011 ($380 million annuity) - Idaho, Washington
- Mega Millions: $233.1 million cash, Mar. 6, 2007 ($390 million annuity) - Georgia, New Jersey
- Mega Millions: $230.9 million cash, Mar. 18, 2014 ($414 million annuity) - Florida, Maryland
- Powerball: $227.8 million cash, Feb. 19, 2014 ($425.3 million annuity) - California
- Powerball: $224.7 million cash, Aug. 15, 2012 ($337 million annuity) - Michigan
- Powerball: $223.3 million cash, Sep. 18, 2013 ($399.4 million annuity) - South Carolina
- Mega Millions: $214 million cash, Aug. 28, 2009 ($336 million annuity) - California, New York
- Powerball: $211 million cash, Mar. 23, 2013 ($338.3 million annuity) - New Jersey
- Powerball: $210 million cash, Feb. 11, 2012 ($336.4 million annuity) - Rhode Island
- Mega Millions: $202.9 million cash, Mar. 25, 2011 ($319 million annuity) - New York
- Mega Millions: $197.5 million cash, Nov. 4, 2014 ($326 million annuity) - New York
- Powerball: $197.4 million cash, Sep. 30, 2015 ($310.5 million annuity) - Michigan
- Mega Millions: $194.4 million cash, Aug. 31, 2007 ($330 million annuity) - Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia
- Mega Millions: $185 million cash, Nov. 15, 2005 ($315 million annuity) - California
- The Big Game: $180 million cash, May 9, 2000 ($363 million annuity) - Illinois, Michigan
- Mega Millions: $177.3 million cash, Jan. 16, 2015 ($270 million annuity) - Illinois
- Powerball: $177.3 million cash, Feb. 18, 2006 ($365 million annuity) - Nebraska
- Powerball: $170.5 million cash, Dec. 25, 2002 ($314.9 million annuity) - West Virginia
The number of jackpot cash values in the top 25, by lottery game, are:
- Powerball: 13
- Mega Millions: 11
- The Big Game: 1
I have a feeling that the jackpot will be won tonight!
900 million............ oh my god, it's getting so close to a billion!
06-40-43-46-61 + 17
01-02-24-30-55 + 04
13-45-52-62-69 + 02
09-47-62-64-67 + 02
12-32-53-60-63 + 17
10-20-21-54-66 + 20
10-33-45-47-63 + 09
08-16-25-39-50 + 22
13-34-51-55-63 + 18
09-28-38-43-57 + 14
08-20-29-43-49 + 04
20-27-30-38-61 + 02
25-26-35-41-46 + 12
02-04-26-29-41 + 07
20-29-48-63-66 + 17
13-39-41-64-69 + 17
22-29-53-61-68 + 22
10-19-36-43-48 + 01
16-26-40-52-67 + 21
09-30-37-39-60 + 07
04-13-28-44-67 + 07
05-07-17-27-41 + 20
02-11-13-47-53 + 09
31-47-50-53-66 + 11
06-12-48-49-52 + 22
14-18-21-39-40 + 12
08-18-19-26-49 + 22
04-14-35-40-60 + 14
10-32-49-50-55 + 17
05-21-23-68-69 + 12
04-10-35-36-46 + 26
01-30-40-50-61 + 20
02-08-44-62-64 + 11
21-26-31-44-64 + 17
07-12-25-27-39 + 12
02-14-32-53-57 + 02
17-28-32-39-47 + 21
01-16-35-39-45 + 10
28-33-35-59-61 + 23
14-27-40-55-66 + 01
04-16-29-43-66 + 03
11-19-45-51-69 + 01
09-35-39-41-68 + 18
03-32-54-60-63 + 21
18-24-51-52-62 + 08
10-16-37-46-48 + 15
03-11-14-44-47 + 23
02-40-42-56-69 + 20
20-29-42-57-67 + 19
08-24-33-42-56 + 03
Me too! Just a few more.
Running out to buy an AED Defibrillator and place it next to me as I check my numbers, just in case.
Good Luck All!!!!!!!!!!!!
$900 million- that number is scary good. Gonna be won by a LP member- just watch!
Its not going to roll over because I am taking this one tonight. However, let's hypotheticaly say it does roll over...could it reach 2 billion?
7 more days until my Birthday, what a great gift to me, lol
Lol
One ticket
One winner
With the high number of tickets sold, there will be at least one winner and probably more than one winner.
One more thing is also guaranteed: many lottery websites will be have very slow response or will be inaccessible tonight around 11pm to midnight or 1am EST
Kudos, I'm ready to claim this most exciting yet jackpot this week.
Why would I remove that word? That's exactly how the payments are made. They increase each year.
If you're weren't aware of that, go to the Jackpot Analysis page at USA Mega and click the Annuity Payment Schedule link next to your state.
specially if I get that single ticket winner
Should I purchase an extra ticket?
Sure, if you have an extra $2, this month, why not?
I'm headed out to buy a couple more lines myself here in a few minutes. Just a couple. Gotta save some money in case it rolls over.
....with 10 more hours of purchasing to go.
I predict 6 winners.
I'm predicting 6 winners!!!
I like 7
Lets hope I'm 1 of them.
Good luck to everyone on LP tonight!
It's gonne ba a jungle in the nations 7-11s and gas stations.
OH...OH....OH..OH...OH...OH...OH...OH....OH.....OH..... STOP! (PAUSE) HAMMER TIMER!!
HIGHER LOTTERY JACKPOTS=HIGHER LOTTERY SALES.
at best, three ticket jackpot holders. 1 will be a motley gang who worked in a factory. The other two holders will be one hit wonders, who on a whim got a ticket.
I'll go so far as to say the pb will be #6, or #26.
How ironic it would be if a office pool of tax collectors won lol.
Yes, Thanks be to the Fire Departments, Police, Ambulances, Sheriffs, State Police, US Judicial department, and we can never forget our Armed Forces protecting America. Sometimes these are thankless jobs that are not recognized the way they should be.
May I include some politicians who are not thanked and recognized.
I forgot Nurses, Doctors, Psychiatrists, Counselors,
I might as well say,"God Bless America"!
There's about a 78 percent chance there will be a winner tonight with close to 429 million tickets sold.
OH MY..... what can I say ????? YAHOOO !!!!
sully16, Is your birthday January 16th? What a wonderful birthday present this could be for you! You would make all LP Members proud to be here on this site with you.
My birthday is January 22,
Somebody wrote about Marie Holmes winning this one. I think there will be riots in that case.
The lottery seems to projecting, at this point, $741M in sales, the number of tickets being sold being half that, to produce a $900M jackpot.
The Poisson distribution for this number of tickets sold, assuming random generation of tickets, produces the following probabilities for numbers of winners:
Although a single winner is the single most probable outcome, followed by a rollover, no single outcome outweighs the combined others. Anything can happen. There is a significant possibility that the game has now become a $450M (annuity) or a $300M (annuity) game for any winners.
As things proceed, a rollover becomes less and less likely, although not impossible. (It is really very, very, very, unlikely that the entire field will be covered as the target for unchosen numbers becomes smaller.)
The expectation value, because of the possibility of smaller jackpot prizes being awarded because of a larger number of winners, is now 0.85, pretax cash basis.
These calculations don't take multiple identical/duplicate entries into account, correct?
Powerplay should be 10x today. I dont care about the jackpot anymore, second tier will be great for me
You guys do know if it's just 1 winner the media so going to do this outside to the winners neighborhood right?
- Well, obviously we have the media out in Lincoln Park. Their knocking on your doors, snatchin’ your people up, tryin’ to interview ‘em. So y’all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband cause they’re interviewing’ everybody out here.
btw Todd, how prepared are you for the flood of heavy traffic happening later tonight?
- Todd's servers this evening.
I hope someone wins this big jackpot tonight.
No matter if the powerplay is 10x, the 2nd tier will still only be 2 million.
Happy Early Birthday and good luck to you.
Hopefully someone will post the numbers after the drawing. I'm fairly certain Powerball's website will crash.
Also, the 10x powerplay is only applicable to jackpots at or below $150 million.
USA mega, the sister site to LP is always on the money with positing timely results and it can handle the traffic. Todd works around the clock on a normal day so I can only imagine how hard he is working now.
THANKS TODD FOR ALL YOU DO!
I'm going to do all I can do to keep Lottery Post and USA Mega up and responsive. Expect at the very least some slowness as millions of people hit the sites all at once.
Thank-you Todd for your accurate and up-to-the-minute Lottery News!
Whenever I see the name Todd Northrop in an article about The Lottery, whether at Lottery Post or, elsewhere, I always read the article because I know the information will be both informative and, accurate!
Thanks again Todd!
While everyone was hee hawing i said first on Wednesday January 6th 1:20pm in the threads hours before last Wednesdays powerball draw that went to 524 million that it would hit a billion dollars on Saturday the 9th with no winner. Don't hee haw people. Take a stand early and make a prediction right or wrong. Early bird gets the worm.
While im 1 for 1 lets make another early prediction. No one will win tonight. It will roll to 1.6 billion for next Wednesday nights draw and a single ticket will win it all at that time.
Good luck and may one of us win it all. If we do lets do Todd a favor and wear one of his lotterypost t-shirts/tank tops to the press conference!
While we are all having delusions of grandeur right now let me go all the way with it. If i win the press conference will be held at the "TRUMP HOTEL LAS VEGAS". The press conference table will be for seven people. Dad, Mom, Brother, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Todd, and Me of course!
Todd you in?
I know that, i just think will be nice to win 500k for 4+PB
Sounds like fun, I'm in.
No hee-hawing, I promise.
Though the hard data involved isn't presented, since it was established to be based on sales, repeat tickets would seem to be within the parameters. This is verified through the percentage calculations of possible multiple winners. Without accountable multiple entries a multiple winner scenario could not exist. Just my observation, however.
If nobody hits this tonight, it will be worth $1.3 billion dollars!!! The power ball folks who decided to change the number matrix must be giving themselves high fives for their decision.
Does anyone that lives in Orlando, know the time and the station, that televise the drawing??
I would leave the country so fast
I'm sure our local stations will be showing the draw live tonight, they did the last time the lotto jackpot was large.
Channel 6, 10:59
Also.....You can watch the drawing live on ClickOrlando.com. Download the free News 6 App to watch the drawing live.
I'm thinkin this won't roll. As strong as sales are, probably EVERY number combination available has been sold. I wonder how many winners there could be. If birthday numbers are drawn I wouldn't be shocked to see up to 25 jackpot winners.
9 hours to go.
Yes, a big thank you to Todd for all the hard work he puts in.
I noticed that the Lotter site has been down for almost 24 hours now.
Quite possibly they can't handle all the sales coming their way.
I just read a yahoo article, saying I would only take jome 255 million and usamega said 300 and something. How do I calculate lump sum after taxes?
Based on lines I'm seeing where there are normally none, they may raise this to $1,000,000,000.00 PRIOR to the drawing....we shall see!
Yes they do. The show the probabilities of various numbers of winners assuming a randomized sampling, and the expectation value is weighted for the size of the prizes that would be won by multiple winners.
https://www.usamega.com/powerball-jackpot.asp
Go to a tax estimator and fill in your info for a quick estimate. I like turbotax myself.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/
The Billboard along the highway now reads "OVER 900 Million"
I just bought my last 2 tickets at noon at Albertson's. Nobody was at the machines at all. I glanced over to the customer service desk and there was only one person. Dunno if he was buying Powerballs or not. No fever in Idaho!
65% chance there will be a winner tonight
Looks like your not the only one, I"m reading an article with Twitter posts and many cannot get in.
That site is on overdrive!
I just checked for funsies. The site is up but the option to play Powerball for this historical drawing has closed.
I'm not a tax lawyer/CPA, but I just take the cash value and multiply it by .604 (the inverse of .396) to account for federal taxes. I don't have a state tax, so $558 million is worth $337 million to me. The "25% federal withholding" is just how much they take out, you still have to pay the rest of it yourself, meaning the check will come for $418.5 million and I'll have to write another check to the IRS for $81.5 million or so.
Yeah, deductions can reduce that, but lottery winners lose up to 80% of deductions (including for charity) because of something called the Pease limitation. There's no limit on gambling losses against wins, though, so if I lose $1m playing blackjack at Caesars Palace the IRS gives me $396,000 in a break, but if I give $1m to a charity I get $79,200. Again, not a lawyer/CPA, but it seems like you should do charity because you want to, not for the tax break.
hmm so right now saw about a 75-80% chance of a winner and 1.3B to start if it rolls
ANNUITY ALL THE WAY BAAAAAABYYYYYY! lol. She will roll. Wednesday is the big day, not today, not today.
NO WAY this will roll! Unthinkable!
I'd love to see it.
I think Steve Harvey should announce the winner of this!
Oh boy... if it rolled... I would not want to be a clerk selling tickets to all the maniacs the next few days.
Yes, I examine that jackpot analysis, often.
And, I'm so glad to be living near to a no-lotto-tax state, where I go to play.
My lame heavy-lotto tax state, rarely gets my business anymore.