Powerball jackpot triggers frenzied Iowa sales

DES MOINES – Millions of dollars and solutions to unfulfilled dreams were one elusive number away for three Iowans.

For hordes of other Iowans, they have far less or nothing to show for their long-odds, high-stakes gamble.

So it goes with lottery drawings.

Officials with the Iowa Lottery said Sunday the final results showed that 77,640 tickets sold in Iowa won prizes in Saturday night's record Powerball jackpot drawing, including three tickets that came within one number of having at least a share of the jackpot.

The $590.5 million jackpot was won by a single ticket purchased in Florida.

Strong sales across the country pushed the jackpot to $590.5 million if taken as an annuity or $370.9 million as a cash option. That surpassed the previous Powerball jackpot of $587.5 million jackpot won by two tickets purchased in Arizona and Missouri last Nov. 28.

Lottery officials say an initial look at Saturday's drawing and its Iowa results revealed the following:

A total of 77,640 tickets purchased by Iowa Lottery players won prizes ranging from $4 up to $40,000. Two tickets purchased at Iowa locations in Fort Dodge and Aurelia matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball to win prizes of $10,000 each. One more also matched those same numbers, but had the Power Play option added to it, so that ticket purchased in Dubuque won a prize of $40,000.

The winning numbers in Saturday's $590.5 million Powerball jackpot drawing were: 10-13-14-22-52 and Powerball 11. Complete overall results for the drawing were not yet available late Saturday, as some lotteries in the game were still processing records to determine their in-state results.

Iowa Lottery players bought more than $5.1 million in Powerball tickets for Saturday's drawing, including nearly $2.8 million in tickets on Saturday alone. During Saturday's busiest stretch from about 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Powerball tickets were selling at nearly $5,000 per minute in Iowa. However, the average Powerball purchase on Saturday in Iowa remained just $5.81, or 3 plays per ticket.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball were about 1 in 175.2 million because there are about 175.2 million ways to combine the numbers in the game to make a play. By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 80 percent of all the possible combinations were purchased in Saturday's drawing.

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