ARIZONA – A Powerball ticket in Arizona hit all the right numbers on Wednesday night, giving one lucky player a $473.1 million jackpot after the prize topped previous estimates.
Wednesday’s winning numbers were 11, 36, 61, 62 and 68 with a Powerball of 4. The ticket was purchased at a Quick Trip store in Gilbert, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.
The lucky winner can choose to win the $473.1 million prize via the annuity option, which means it is paid out over 29 years. Almost all of the big winners take the cash option, a one-time payment of $283.3 million. Both award options are taxable.
After no winning ticket won the jackpot in Monday’s previous drawing, strong ticket sales skyrocketed Wednesday’s final winning ticket number: the third of 2022.
While there was only one mega-winner, more than 1.4 million tickets also won cash prizes in Wednesday night’s drawing, including a ticket from Indiana that matched all five white balls and won $1 million.
On January 5, two tickets in California and Wisconsin split a $632.6 million jackpot, the seventh largest prize in Powerball history. Then, in the drawing on February 14, a ticket in Connecticut won a $185.3 million jackpot. Until before Wednesday, there were 30 drawings in a row without a jackpot winner.
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The estimated jackpot for the upcoming drawing on Saturday has been reset to $20 million, or a cash value of $12 million.
The longer the game goes without a grand prize winner, the higher the payout.
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The chance of winning the jackpot is one in 292.2 million.
Drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 pm ET.