Massachusetts Has a New Multi-Millionaire Thanks to Powerball

It seems like our state lotteries are more popular than they have ever been.

Even though the odds of you winning are super slim, the promise of life-changing money keeps people buying tickets on a regular basis.

One of the most popular games of chance here in the United States is the Powerball.

What is Powerball?

For those who don't know, Powerball is a multi state lottery where you pick five numbers from 1 to 69, plus one Powerball number from 1 to 26.  Drawings happen three nights a week, and jackpots can climb into the hundreds of millions when nobody wins.

You can buy tickets at places you already stop, like your local store in Augusta, Waterville, or Gardiner, and yes, the odds are long,  but for a couple of bucks, you get a few days of “what would I do if…”

While the game has always featured large jackpots, since the move was made to add an additional weekly play, we have seen the jackpots climb much faster than they have in the past.

Why is this?  Well, the more people spend on the tickets, the higher the jackpot grows.  With the addition of the third drawing each week, the jackpot started growing about 30% faster than it previously had.

This has led to some enormous jackpots over the last few years.

The jackpot for Wednesday night's drawing was $1.25 BILLION.

The winning numbers for 25-33-53-62-66 PB 17

No one won the jackpot so that means the jackpot for Saturday's drawing will be about $1.5 BILLION!

Massachusetts' $2 Million Winner

You do not need to match all of the numbers in order to win.  If you match 5 numbers, you walk away with $1 million.  If you match 5 and the Powerball, you get $2 million.

That's exactly what someone from Massachusetts did during Wednesday's drawing.

We do not know the identity of the $2 million winner, but we do offer our congratulations.