Powerball announced the six winning numbers for the record jackpot of nearly $950 million on Saturday, setting off a scramble among hopeful lottery players across the country to check if they held a lucky ticket.
The winning numbers — disclosed live on television and online — were 16-19-32-34-57 and the Powerball number 13. All six numbers must be correct to win, although the first five can be in any order. On Saturday night, Texas state lottery spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said it was too early to know if any winning tickets were sold.
Cripe said the final size of the jackpot was $949.8 million, the largest lottery prize in history.
Ahead of the drawing, people across the country dreamed about what they’d do with the jackpot — vacationing in warm climates, sharing with family members — and could still be thinking big in the coming days. If no one matched all the numbers on Saturday night, the next drawing is expected to soar to $1.3 billion.
Since Nov. 4, the Powerball jackpot has grown from its $40 million starting point as no one has won the jackpot. Such a huge jackpot was just what officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, hoped for last fall when they changed the odds of matching all the Powerball numbers, from about one in 175 million to one in 292.2 million. By making it harder to win a jackpot, the tougher odds made the ever-larger prizes inevitable.
The U.S. saw sales of $277 million on Friday alone and more than $400 million were expected Saturday, according to Gary Grief, the executive director of the Texas Lottery.
The chance of no one hitting all five initial numbers and the Powerball number was growing slimmer, Grief said, anticipating that about 75 percent of all combinations will have been bought.
The frenzy was real Saturday afternoon at a newsstand in New York City’s Penn Station, where cashier Setara Begum said she was exhausted from taking about $10,000 worth of orders that ranged from a single $2 ticket to one man buying $500 worth of tickets.
“I’m going crazy! I can’t take it anymore!” she said, burying her face in her hands but giggling uncontrollably as she turned to a line of customers.
Scott Edwards was making the most of his chances, playing in three different groups of eight New Yorkers, a $20 buy-in per person per group.
“I guess eight is going to break the money down a lot,” said the 55-year-old, whose groups include Madison Square Garden, where he monitors security for deliveries, as well as the truck drivers delivering those goods and one in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
But for all the excitement, Grief urged those hoping to hit it big not to spend more than they could afford.
“We’re very concerned about people playing responsibly and not overspending,” he said. “It only takes one ticket to win.”
Ticket frenzy
Anndrea Smith, 30, of Omaha, Neb., has already spent more than she usually does on Powerball tickets.
“I bought four yesterday, and I usually never buy any,” said Smith, manager of Bucky’s gas station and convenience store in northwest Omaha. She’s not alone, saying the store sold “about $5,000 worth of tickets yesterday. Usually on a Friday, we might sell $1,200 worth.”
If she wins, her first purchase will be “a warm vacation,” she said, as the temperature outside hovered in the single digits. “I’d share with family, too.”
Attorney John Belferman of Barnesville, Md., stopped in to Continental Wine & Liquor in downtown Washington to pick up a ticket on Saturday afternoon. He’ll take a break if he wins.
“If I don’t drop dead of a heart attack, I’ll finish the work I’m doing now and maybe take a vacation,” he said.
Belferman said he doesn’t have to win the big jackpot.
“I’m not greedy,” he said. “I’ll take third place.”