Players Should Sign Their Tickets in the Store
ALBUQUERQUE – It’s up again. The jackpot in tonight’s Powerball® drawing just jumped to $500 million. The jackpot’s cash option is $337.8 million.
“Powerball’s back with the best jackpot in a year and its bringing back players,” said New Mexico Lottery CEO David Barden. “Players are dreaming big and they’re making dreams comes true for all the college students who depend on Legislative Lottery Scholarships.”
- Sign their tickets before they leave the store and keep them in a safe place;
- Check their tickets for prizes immediately after the drawing and claim prizes before the ticket’s 90-day expiration date;
- Remember that there are eight other Powerball prizes ranging between $4 and $1 million and that the Power Play® option multiples non-jackpot prizes up to $2 million.
Powerball Fun Facts
If Wednesday’s jackpot lands in New Mexico, it will break the record $206.9 million jackpot won by a pool of nine Powerball players from the Roswell area in September 2008.
In the past six years in New Mexico, 18 Powerball tickets have paid prizes of $1 million and $2 million. The state’s most recent Powerball millionaire is Romana Saavedra of Las Cruces. Last week, Saavedra claimed a $2 million prize from the game’s Nov. 29 drawing.
The record Powerball jackpot is $590.5 million. It was won in May 2013 by a player in Florida.
How to Play Powerball
Powerball is played in 47 lotteries. Players choose five numbers from 1 to 59 and one Powerball number from 1 to 35. Players can also ask for a “quick pick,” a set of numbers chosen randomly by the lottery’s gaming system. Each wager costs $2.
The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are approximately 1 in 175 million. The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are approximately 1 in 32.
Legislative Lottery Scholarships
The New Mexico Lottery has raised $632.9 million for education in New Mexico. More than 97,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships, of which 43,400 students have already earned their college degrees. More information is available at www.nmlottery.com.