The Powerball lottery continues to build into public-event territory as officials drew the winning numbers Wednesday night for a $157 million contest that hasn’t seen a jackpot winner in almost a month.
The winning numbers were 2-62-40-50-3, with the red Powerball being 5.
The $2 tickets are sold in 44 states that, along with the District of Columbia and some U.S. territories.
Nobody has won Powerball since a record $1.6 billion jackpot was split three ways on Jan. 13. In the last drawing Saturday, only one person, in Illinois, even matched the five numbers, while missing the Powerball, a feat worth $1 million.
All told, almost 795,000 people won something Saturday, albeit an average of less than $10 (a total of $7.5 million was won).
If taken as a lump sum, as most recent big lottery winners have chosen to do, Wednesday’s $157 million prize would be worth almost $102 million, with federal taxes quickly taking almost 40 percent of that amount and state taxes a possibility on top of that.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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