WASHINGTON — The good news: After a delay of about 45 minutes, the Powerball numbers for Wednesday came in. The bad news: you didn't win the jackpot.
In fact, nobody did. The prize, which has topped half a billion dollars, remains up for grabs and continues to grow. Nobody has correctly matched all six numbers right since August.
Wednesday's $508 million Powerball winning numbers were: 6-8-15-27-42, Powerball 10 and Power Play 3. Saturday's jackpot is an estimated $550 million, with a cash option of $277.5 Million.
There were some smaller winners on Wednesday, though. Two tickets matched all five white ball numbers, but missed the Powerball. Those lotto players in Michigan and New Jersey each have a $1 million ticket. Another player in New Jersey matched all five numbers, except the Powerball, but added the Power Play, meaning their ticket is worth $2 million.
Wednesday's drawing was initially delayed because of a technical problem, but it lasted less than an hour. On the Powerball website, lottery officials explained that security requirements at one of the state lotteries required some extra time.
"Powerball has strict security requirements that must be met by all 48 lotteries before a drawing can occur," the website said.
During what was supposed to be the live drawing, the host said Powerball was unable to draw the winning numbers but results would be posted on Powerball's website and its YouTube channel as soon as the problem was fixed. The drawing was posted before midnight Eastern, less than an hour after it was originally scheduled.
Powerball has now had 33 drawings in a row without a grand prize winner. Players must match all five numbers and the Powerball to win the jackpot. The odds of that happening? Less than 1 in 292 million.
Despite the narrow odds of winning the grand prize, the shot at becoming a millionaire isn't out of the question. While there were no jackpot winners on Monday either, there were million-dollar winners in Iowa and Wisconsin, and another player in Kentucky won $2 million.
Last week, two players won the $494 million Mega Millions jackpot, after matching all five numbers and the Mega ball. It was the second-largest Mega Millions prize this year.
This summer's near-record $1.377 billion Mega Millions jackpot sent Americans in a lottery frenzy in July, until a winner in Illinois took home the grand prize. Two people came forward last month to claim that prize, but they chose to stay anonymous.
Powerball still holds the world record for largest jackpot with a whopping $1.586 billion prize won in 2016. That prize was shared by winners in Tennessee, Florida and California.
Powerball's current $550 million jackpot would need to remain winless for a while before it reached all-time record status, though it's inching closer to the tenth-largest Powerball prize of $564.1 million.
If you were to stack up $500 million with $100 bills, it would roughly be the size of the One World Trade Center in New York.
Here's a look at the biggest U.S. jackpots ever:
- $1.586 billion, Powerball, Jan. 13, 2016 (three tickets, from California, Florida, Tennessee)
- $1.537 billion, Mega Millions, Oct. 23, 2018 (one ticket, from South Carolina)
- $1.337 billion, Mega Millions, July 29, 2022 (one ticket, from Illinois)
- $1.05 billion, Mega Millions, Jan. 22, 2021 (one ticket, from Michigan)
- $768.4 million, Powerball, March 27, 2019 (one ticket, from Wisconsin)
- $758.7 million, Powerball, Aug. 23, 2017 (one ticket, from Massachusetts)
- $731.1 million, Powerball, Jan. 20, 2021 (one ticket, from Maryland)
- $699.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 4, 2021 (one ticket, from California)
- $687.8 million, Powerball, Oct. 27, 2018 (two tickets, from Iowa and New York)
- $656 million, Mega Millions, March 30, 2012 (three tickets, from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland)
Val Lick contributed to this report.