Powerball reaches $43 million

UNITED STATES – (PRESS RELEASE) --Powerball will reach an estimated $43 million jackpot for Saturday night's draw as the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening. Even though the jackpot was not hit, one lucky ticket from North Carolina won $600,000 cash by matching all 5 white numbers with the Power Play option!

The jackpot for the Saturday, December 16th drawing will be $43 million with the cash option at $21.2 million.

The numbers drawn Wednesday evening were 19, 32, 33, 42, 54, and the Powerball was 15. The Power Play multiplier was 3.

Eighteen tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Seven additional winning tickets of that prize level also had the Power Play option that multiplied winnings by 3 for a total of $30,000 cash! An incredible 379,431 tickets across the nation won more than $3.3 million in prizes playing America's favorite game.

A total of 76,895 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 3 Wednesday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for $1. With Power Play you multiply your Powerball winnings from 2-5 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 $17.3 million in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.

The lotteries sold $2.8 billion in Powerball tickets in fiscal year 2006. That translates into over $800 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.