For the second time this year, Monday night’s Powerball drawing will be worth one of the ten biggest jackpots in the game’s history.
The winning numbers were 12-22-54-66-69 with the Powerball being 15.
The $685 million prize, if won, would be the eighth-largest in U.S. lottery history and comes after 40 drawings without a jackpot winner and eight months after a Maryland group won a $731.1 million prize — the contest’s fourth-largest ever.
Powerball recently expanded to three nights a week, adding a Monday drawing to its Wednesday and Saturday games. Powerball said in August that the extra drawing would lead to “larger, faster-growing jackpots.”
If taken in a single cash lump sum, as most recent big lottery winners have chosen to do, Monday’s $685 million prize would be worth $485 million. The larger, advertised amount is what the other option — a 29-year annuity — would be worth over its lifetime.
Federal taxes would quickly take almost 40% of that amount, with state taxes a possibility on top of that.
Monday’s drawing comes a week after a winning Mega Millions ticket was sold in New York, worth an estimated $432 million, or $315 million if taken in a cash lump sum.
The $2 Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The odds of a winning Powerball ticket are 1 in 292.2 million.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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