2 winners to share $688M Powerball

DES MOINES, Iowa — Lottery officials say two winning tickets were sold for the $688 million Powerball jackpot, one in a rural Iowa town and the other in New York City.

Powerball officials said early Sunday that the two tickets matched all six numbers in Saturday night’s drawing. The jackpot was originally estimated at $750 million but worked out to $687.8 million by the time of the drawing. The jackpot is the fourth-largest in U.S. history.

One of the winning tickets was sold at Casey’s convenience store in Redfield, Iowa, a rural community of about 800 people. The other winning ticket was sold at West Harlem Deli in New York City. There was no immediate word on who purchased the winning tickets.

The winning numbers were 8, 12, 13, 19 and 27, and Powerball 4.

The drawing came four days after someone won a $1.54 billion Mega Millions jackpot, which marked the second-largest lottery prize. That ticket was sold in South Carolina.

Powerball is played in 44 states; Washington, D.C.; the U.S Virgin Islands; and Puerto Rico. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

The exact jackpot is determined by sales figures. Officials note that the reason jackpots grow so dramatically when prizes get enormous is because people who don’t normally play decide to buy a few tickets. Irregular players make it more difficult for officials to estimate the jackpot.