Powerball Jackpot Reaches $101 Million

UNITED STATES – (PRESS RELEASE) -- The jackpot in America's favorite lottery game continues to grow breaking into the next level of top prizes. Even though the grand prize was not awarded Wednesday evening, 537,572 players across the nation won a total of more than $3.5 million in prizes.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers in Wednesday's drawing the jackpot will grow to an estimated $101 million!

The cash option for the Saturday, January 21st drawing will be an estimated $50.2 million.

The numbers drawn Wednesday night were 15, 29, 38, 52, 53 and the Powerball was 7. The Power Play multiplier was 2.

Three very lucky winning tickets in Idaho (1), New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania (1) matched all 5 white numbers for a $200,000 prize.

Nineteen players matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Three additional players who won at this prize level also wisely purchased the Power Play and had the $10,000 winnings multiplied by 2 to $20,000!

More than 84,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prizes by 2 Wednesday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings from 2 to 5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun to select that night's multiplier.

Players should carefully check their tickets after every draw. Even if there are no jackpot winners there are always tens of thousands of winners at other prize levels.

Players purchased more than $20.4 million in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.

The lotteries sold more than $2 billion in Powerball tickets in FY05. That translates into more than $600 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.