Powerball Jackpot Rises to $34 Million

No tickets were sold matching all six numbers in the latest drawing of the multi-state Powerball lottery, pushing the estimated jackpot for Saturday’s drawing to $34 million.

A ticket with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, was sold at a grocery store in Cathedral City and is worth $346,728, the California Lottery announced.

Powerball tickets with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or $2 million, but California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners and can be less or more than $1 million.

The ticket with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, sold in Michigan is worth $1 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.

The numbers drawn Wednesday were 19, 30, 31, 61, 62 and the Powerball number was 21. The estimated jackpot was $20 million.

The drawing was the first since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.

The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.

The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

— City News Service