Powerball: no winner, jackpot tops $1 billion

Six tickets purchased in the state did match five of the six winning numbers, a substantial prize in itself.

The winning numbers for the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history were drawn Saturday evening, but officials said there was no winner in the $949.8-million Powerball drawing. The jackpot rises to $1.38 billion for the next drawing, on Wednesday.

The numbers were: 16, 19, 32, 34, 57 and the Powerball number, 13.

Lotto fever has gripped the country for the last several days, sending players in swarms to ticket vendors that they deem lucky.

Ticket sales nationally shot the prize up by more than $49.8 million on Saturday alone.

California officials said that six tickets purchased in the state matched five of the six winning numbers, entitling their holders to smaller but still substantial prize money, officials said.

On Friday, California players purchased about $37 million in tickets. Saturday’s sales were higher. As of 7 p.m., Californians had scooped up $59.1 million in Powerball tickets, officials said.

In California, about 80 cents of every $2 ticket sold goes toward education.

Nationwide, more than $1 billion in Powerball tickets were sold, lottery officials said.

The Powerball game is played in 44 states and three U.S. territories.

To win, a participant must match five numbers between 1 and 69 and a sixth number between 1 and 26 that is drawn separately. The odds of this happening are 1 in 292.2 million.

If someone did hit the right combination for the $949-million jackpot on Saturday, they would have the option of taking a lump sum payment of $588.8 million.

The largest previous Powerball jackpot was $590.5 million, won when a single ticket purchased in Florida matched all six numbers in 2013.

The country’s largest previous lottery jackpot came about a year earlier, when the owners of three tickets in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland split a $656million Mega Millions jackpot.

At the end of a nearly 30person line at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Mark Willis clutched his blue lottery ticket holder.

The lettering on the thin

‘That’s a lot of money. You could have your whole life changed.’

— Mark Willis,

a Leimert Park video producer

plastic booklet, which he calls his “book of dreams,” was faded.

Inside the holder’s pockets, atop his lottery tickets, he had photos and crinkled newspaper clippings of his dream purchases: a Bentley, a Rolex, a Gulfstream IV jet (he’d name it “Angel”) and a beachfront mansion.

“That’s a lot of money,” the Leimert Park video producer said Friday of what was then an $800-million jackpot. “You could have your whole life changed.”