The pressure continues to rise as the grand prize of the Powerball lottery yet again rolls over, unclaimed. On a mild Monday evening, April 15, the jackpot of a staggering $63 million went unclaimed, pushing the grand total for Wednesday, April 17’s drawing to an enticing $78 million. So it begs the question — will you see yourself crowned as the next lucky millionaire?
On the night of Wednesday, April 17, lottery players penned the numbers 24-29-44-47-54 as they eagerly awaited the suspense-ridden announcement of the Powerball number. Eventually, the hard-hitting number ‘2’ broke the silence, both onscreen and offscreen, but the grand jackpot once again went unclaimed. The power play of the night was also announced as 2x, adding to shrill excitement and anticipation that was palpable in the air.
Powerball’s grand jackpot has seen its fair share of climbs and falls. It stood, once upon a time not too long ago, to possibly become the fattest lottery jackpot ever. After two nerve-racking months of suspense and countless rollovers, the jackpot was finally claimed at a mind-boggling $1.3 billion, with the cash option at $608.9 million. This grand prize, claimed on Saturday, April 6, proudly holds the record for the fourth highest Powerball jackpot, and the eighth highest lottery prize, ever won.
As of now, ahead of the upcoming drawing, the Powerball jackpot sands at $78 million with the cash option pegged at $36.5 million. Lottery hopefuls might find it interesting to note that in the last drawing held on April 15, the drawn numbers were 7-16-41-56-61, with the Powerball being number 23, and power play standing at 3x.
But the thrill of the gamble isn’t just in the winning. It’s what one does when they finally hold the winning ticket in their hands. A specific example that springs to mind is of Powerball winner Edwin Castro, who publicly claimed a massive jackpot of $2.04 billion on none other than – Valentine’s Day.
With the next Powerball drawing looming on the horizon, scheduled for Saturday, April 20, at 11 p.m. EDT, the all-important question on everyone’s mind is who the next big winner will be. For those yet to gauge the odds of winning this grand lottery, the odds are steep but not impossible, standing at 1 in 292.2 million. The reward? The grand prize jackpot that varies every drawing.
Although the Florida Lottery explicitly states winners cannot remain anonymous, it does provide an opportunity for those lucky winners claiming prizes of $250,000 or more to be temporarily exempt from public disclosure for 90 days.
So as we await the coming Saturday draw with bated breath, we can only wonder and dream about what life with an extra few million in the bank would be like, and who the next lucky winner to experience it will be.
