No Powerball winning, jackpot grows to record $700 million

CLIVE — Hold onto your hats, your wallets and your lottery-winning wildest dreams, the Powerball jackpot now stands at an all-time record $700 million.

That's because no one matched the winning numbers of 2, 11, 47, 62, 63 and the Powerball number 17 in Wednesday's drawing. The Power Play number was 3. Iowa Lottery officials say strong sales nationwide pushed Wednesday's jackpot to $524.1 million annuity, or $320.7 million cash option.

Initially, Saturday's jackpot was set at $675 million, but Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the top prize was pushed even higher Thursday into record territory at $700 million with a cash option of $428.4 million.

'That is the largest lottery prize ever offered in North America. But with strong sales in Iowa and across the country, it is likely that the estimate will increase again before the drawing,' she noted.

The previous record jackpot of any lottery game in North America was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot that was won on March 30, 2012, and split by three tickets in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland. The largest Powerball jackpot prior to this point was a $590.5 million prize won in the drawing on May 18, 2013, by a Florida woman, Neubauer noted.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million, Neubauer said, because there are about 292.2 million ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play. By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of all the possible combinations have been purchased for a particular drawing. About 45 percent of the combinations were purchased in Wednesday's drawing, she noted. Powerball tickets are sold by 47 lotteries: Iowa, 43 other states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Early details show that Iowa Lottery players won nearly 74,000 prizes in Wednesday's Powerball jackpot drawing, resulting in the game's smaller prizes being spread across the state, lottery officials report.

Iowa Lottery players bought more than $4 million in Powerball tickets for Wednesday's drawing, including more than $2.7 million in tickets on Wednesday alone.

During Wednesday's busiest stretch from about 5-6 p.m., Powerball tickets were selling at more than $6,800 per minute in Iowa. However, the average Iowa Powerball purchase on Wednesday remained about $6, or three plays per ticket.

Neubauer said the demand for Powerball tickets is high in Iowa, with reports that some stores have run out of paper stock for their lottery terminals. Lottery officials are doing their best to provide extra paper supplies statewide while refreshing the stock of those locations that have run out, she added.

Powerball drawings are held at 9:59 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tickets in Iowa can be purchased for Saturday night's drawing up until 8:59 p.m. that day.

The Powerball jackpot starts at a guaranteed $40 million and grows from there until it's won.

Jackpot winners in the game can choose to receive their prize as a one-time, lump-sum payment, or they can receive their winnings in 30 annuitized payments over 29 years — with the annual payment increasing over time to accommodate for inflation.

The cash option is a one-time, lump-sum payment equal to the cash in the Powerball jackpot prize pool from the sale of tickets across the country. In Iowa, jackpot winners pay 25 percent federal withholding and 5 percent state withholding on their prize.

To play, Powerball players choose five numbers from a pool of 69 numbers and another number — called the Powerball — from a separate pool of 26. Plays cost $2 each and players can choose their own numbers or let the terminal generate a play by asking for an easy pick.

Players who purchase the Power Play option for an additional $1 per play can increase their winnings (except for the jackpot and the Match 5 prize) by up to five times the amount.

Iowa Lottery officials have placed electronic signs in retail locations that display the jackpot amounts in both the Powerball and Mega Millions games, but those signs are only designed to display amounts up to $999 million, Neubauer noted. Should the Powerball jackpot climb higher than that amount, she said, the signs would continue to display $999 million for that game.

Eight lottery tickets purchased in Iowa have won Powerball jackpots. The largest Powerball jackpot won in Iowa was a $241 million Powerball prize claimed in June 2012 by the Shipping 20, a group of co-workers from the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids.