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Pennsylvania Lottery

Powerball Produces Two More Million Dollar Tickets in Pennsylvania

There were two Powerball tickets worth one million dollars each sold in  Pennsylvania for the drawing that was held on Saturday, December 22nd.    Pennsylvania Lottery officials say one of the tickets  was sold at the Giant Eagle in Baden, Beaver County. The other million dollar winner was sold at Stauffer’s One Stop in Ringtown, Schuylkill County.

Each retailer gets a five thousand dollar bonus for selling the tickets. No one had all five numbers plus the Powerball, meaning the jackpot grows to 50 million for Wednesday night’s drawing.

Earlier this month, a Bucks County man won a more than 33 million dollar Powerball jackpot.

Powerball Overhaul Pays Off Immediately

Lottery officials said changes in the multi-state Powerball game would lead to larger jackpots sooner. It has already happened, not quite a month into the change.  The jackpot for the drawing on February 11th was up to 325 million dollars by Friday afternoon.

Brisk sales were pushing the jackpot up to its highest mark since the summer of 2007.  By noon Friday, tickets were selling at a pace of more than $6,800 per minute in Pennsylvania alone.  The highest Powerball jackpot ever is $365 million, but Saturday night’s jackpot will offer the highest lump sum cash prize.

Pennsylvania Lottery Director Todd Rucci says this is what they had hoped would happen with the changes in the game. He says the focus was to get larger jackpots sooner. 

Rucci says about 30 cents of each dollar spent on the lottery in Pennsylvania goes to programs for older Pennsylvanians.  This Powerball run has already generated more than 13 million dollars to the lottery fund.

Rucci says they’re trying to separate Powerball from Mega Millions. He says with the changes, it hopefully creates a little more excitement about Powerball.  He says they’re seeing that so far, and excited about where it’s going and where it’s headed.

Rucci says they’re hopeful that this is a good change for the Lottery, but they’ll have to wait and see the long term effects.

Rucci reminds people, with heightened interest in the big jackpot, to have fun but play responsibly.

The jackpot run started in late December. The changes, which included raising ticket prices to $2.00, began January 15th.

Cash

PA Man Claims Powerball Jackpot

51-year-old Steven Lloyd of Harding, Luzerne County has claimed the 12th largest prize ever awarded by the Pennsylvania Lottery.  Lloyd describes his winning November 19th Powerball ticket as a random purchase at the Turkey Hill in Exeter.  He used the change from buying his coffee and granola bar to make the Quick Pick purchase.  “I said, oh, just put the five dollars on Powerball,” Lloyd explained during a news conference at the Pennsylvania Lottery headquarters in Dauphin County. 

Lloyd had to have his winning ticket validated at the Lottery headquarters on Monday morning.  “The Thanksgiving holiday weekend was the longest weekend of my life, because I had a ticket worth 30-some million dollars that I had to worry about for four or five days,” Lloyd said with a nervous laugh.    

The November 19th jackpot was $59.9-million dollar annuity, but Lloyd went with the cash option that grosses him $37.6-million dollars before taxes.  He may not be a regular Lottery player, but Lloyd is now the 14th Pennsylvanians to win a Powerball jackpot.  He wants to use his newfound wealth to “pay it forward.” 

The winning combination for the drawing was 09 – 16 – 17 – 28 – 30, Powerball 11.

Changes Coming to Powerball Early Next Year

Powerball turns 20 next year and there will be some changes in how the game is played, and how much it will cost for a ticket.    The goal is to create more millionaire winners and increase the odds of winning a prize in Powerball.  

Elizabeth Brassell, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Lottery, says the number of balls in the red Powerball pool will be reduced from 39 to 35.   In addition, the opening jackpot will double to 40 million dollars and the second, match five jackpots will increase from 200 thousand to 1 million dollars.  

Brassell says odds today of winning any prize are 1 in 35.  She says that will improve to 1 in 31.8, and the odds of winning a jackpot prize will improve from 1 in 195 million to 1 in 175 million.

Brassell says not only do they anticipate larger prizes for more Pennsylvania Powerball players, they also think the enhanced game will expand Powerball sales.  She says that will contribute more to the bottom line of those programs for older Pennsylvanians the lottery was created to fund.

When the changes take effect, a ticket to play Powerball will cost $2. Tickets for the new version of the game go on sale January 15th.

In anticipation of the changes, the lottery has to start limiting the advance play feature starting this month.  Players now can purchase up to 13 weeks, or 26 drawings, in advance.  October 19th is the last opportunity to purchase 26 draws in advance.   Drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Powerball is a multi-state game.