Powerball winning numbers announced in $425 million jackpot
The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s Powerball lottery have been announced.
The winning numbers are 1, 17, 35, 49, 54, with Powerball number 34.
Large jackpots tend to boost ticket sales and make it more likely the prize will be shared, and changes to the Powerball and Mega Millions games have the jackpots reaching fantasy- inducing levels more often.
In the case of Powerball, officials increased the ticket prices from $1 to $2 in January 2012, and raised starting jackpots to $40 million. The current jackpot began its ascent at the end of 2013.
More than half of the top 10 prizes in U.S. lottery history have occurred since 2012, according to statistics provided by the Multi-State Lottery Association.
The nation’s biggest lottery prize was a $656-million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012 that was shared by three winning tickets sold in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland. The second-largest came in December, a $636-million Mega Millions prize. The two winning tickets were purchased in San Jose, Calif., and Atlanta.
The odds of matching all six Powerball numbers are 1 in about 175 million, according to statistics from the Multi-State Lottery Association in Iowa.
Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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