Powerball rises to $165 million

UNITED STATES – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Powerball will move to an estimated $165 million for Wednesday's draw as the grand prize was not hit Saturday evening. Even though the jackpot was not hit, one lucky ticket from Idaho won $1 million cash with the Power Play option! Five other lucky tickets sold in Minnesota (1), Missouri (1), North Carolina (1), Oregon (1), and Pennsylvania (1) won $200,000 each for matching all 5 white ball numbers.

The jackpot for the Wednesday, March 14th drawing will be $165 million with the cash option at $79.5 million.

The numbers drawn Saturday evening were 14, 18, 34, 42, 43, and the Powerball was 32. The Power Play multiplier was 5.

Thirty-eight tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Nine additional players of that prize level wisely purchased the Power Play and had their prize multiplied by 5 for a $50,000 cash win! A total of 788,820 players across the nation won more than $8.6 million in prizes playing America's favorite game.

More than 122,000 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 5 Saturday. 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 $34.9 million in tickets between Thursday and Saturday 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.