Dec. 26 (UPI) — Powerball may end its record-setting 2023 with a bang with a $685 million jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing after no one matched its Christmas Day drawing on Monday.
A combination of the numbers 5,12, 20, 24, 29 and Powerball 4, totaling $660 million, went unmatched, allowing the jackpot to grow to just short of its top 10 offerings of all time. Powerball has already given two jackpots of more than $1 billion for the first time ever this year.
“The Powerball jackpot evaded players Monday night and rolled to an estimated $685 million for the next drawing on Wednesday night,” Powerball said in a statement. “The jackpot has an estimated cash value of $344.7 million.
“This is the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed half a billion dollars this calendar year. Since [October], there have been 32 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.”
No one has won the Powerball jackpot since a single ticket in California won $1.765 billion on Oct. 11. Powerball also surrendered a $1.08 billion jackpot on July 19, which also went to a single ticket in California.
Two players out of Colorado and Georgia did manage to win $2 million on Christmas by matching the five white ball numbers along with taking part in the Power Play option. Three others, from California, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, won $1 million by picking the five white ball numbers correctly without the Power Play.
