Powerball Jackpot Fast Facts
CLIVE, Iowa - The giant Powerball® jackpot continues to climb, now at an estimated $685 million annuity, $485.5 million lump-sum amount, for Monday's drawing. The jackpot was raised again to its current estimate on Monday, driven by strong sales through the weekend across the country.
The big prize is now the 6th-largest jackpot in the history of the Powerball game and the 8th-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.
Traditionally, the majority of tickets are purchased the day of a drawing, so it is possible that Monday's actual Powerball jackpot will be higher than the advance estimates.
The Powerball jackpot has been growing for nearly four months. It was last won June 5 with a ticket purchased in Florida.
Drawing Details, And An Iowa Ticket That Came So Close
The winning numbers in Saturday's Powerball drawing were: 28-38-42-47-52 and Powerball 1. The Power Play number was 2. An Iowa ticket was just one number away from that night's jackpot and won a $100,000 prize.
The ticket initially matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win a $50,000 prize. But whoever bought the ticket also added the Power Play® option to the purchase, which multiplied the prize to $100,000.
The $100,000-winning ticket was purchased at the Fareway supermarket at 1325 Albia Road in Ottumwa.
Easy Pick vs. Your Own Numbers
The vast majority of Powerball tickets purchased are easy picks, meaning that the player opted to have the lottery terminal randomly select the numbers involved. More than 90 percent of plays purchased in Iowa in recent drawings were easy picks.
And with easy picks making up more than 90 percent of the tickets purchased, they also make up more than 90 percent of winning tickets in the game. That doesn't mean that easy picks are luckier, it's simply that there are a lot more of them.
The odds of winning are the same for every ticket in the game, whether the player buys an easy pick or chooses their own numbers.
What Would $685 Million Look Like?
We calculated this for fun. Here is what $685 million in $1 bills would look like stacked up or stretched end to end:
A $1 bill is 0.0043 inches thick. That means $685 million in $1 bills would stretch 46.49 miles high. That's way up there, but wouldn't quite reach into space, which depending upon the definition used, begins at either 50 miles above sea level or 62 miles up.
And if they were lined up end to end, $685 million in $1 bills (each 6.14 inches long) would stretch for more than 66,380 miles. That's enough to circle earth's equator (24,901 miles) more than 2.5 times.
But could you actually get 685 million in $1 bills? Maybe. According to estimates, there are about 11.7 billion $1 bills in circulation in the United States.
General Reminders About How To Play
Giant jackpots bring a lot of first-timers and occasional players into the Powerball game. For those who want a refresher (or crash course), the Iowa Lottery keeps how-to-play videos on its website to provide the key points in just a couple minutes. Here is a direct link to that page: https://www.ialottery.com/Pages/Multimedia/HowToPlay.aspx
The deadline in Iowa to buy tickets for a Powerball drawing is at 8:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. If you buy a ticket after that deadline, it will be for an upcoming drawing and you won't be in the running for that night's giant prize.
And, please remember to play responsibly. You only need one ticket to have a chance to win.
Return to top↑