The Powerball jackpot is now the highest amount since the run that produced the world record jackpot of $1.586 billion in January 2016. If the jackpot is hit Wednesday, it will be the 2nd largest jackpot in Powerball game history and the 3rd largest among lottery jackpots in North America.
Any player who matches all five numbers and the Powerball in the August 23 drawing will have to decide between the annuity option of an estimated $650 million (30 payments over 29 years) or a lump-sum payment of an estimated $411.7 million. If there is more than one jackpot-winning ticket, the jackpot will be split by the winning tickets.
The jackpot has grown so large because no ticket has matched all numbers in more than two months. In Saturday’s drawing, one ticket sold in southwest Kansas did come close to winning the jackpot when it matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball number to win $50,000.
The winning numbers in the August 19 drawing were: 17-19-39-43-68 Powerball 13. The Power Play multiplier number was 4. There were 33,177 winning tickets sold in Kansas for Saturday’s drawing, and they won a total of $240,925 in prizes.
Powerball sales are expected to be very strong in Kansas and throughout the country this week, as regular players continue to buy tickets and first-time and occasional players jump in as well. As always, the Kansas Lottery encourages players to play responsibly. It only takes one ticket to win!
