Virginia Powerball players came up short of winning the big one, but they still scored in Monday’s drawing, in more ways than one.
On Monday a lucky Powerball player in California claimed the $699.8 million jackpot.
The Oct. 4 drawing had generated substantial interest. After all, since June Powerball had hosted 41 drawings without a jackpot winner, so the grand prize kept growing.
Ticket sales were brisk for the drawing. And as it turns out, one Virginia Powerball player didn’t even need to leave home to score a cool $1 million.
$1M won via Virginia Powerball online
The winning numbers for the $700 million drawing on Oct. 4 were 12-22-54-66-69, and the Powerball was 15.
It was the seventh-largest jackpot in US lottery history. It was also the fifth-largest jackpot in Powerball history.
The Virginia Lottery allows players to purchase Powerball tickets (as well as Mega Millions tickets) online. And one player in the Virginia city of Oakton did just that. As a result, the player scored a $1 million payday for matching the first five numbers (but not the Powerball).
Powerball tickets cost $2 each. If the $1 million winner would’ve chosen the optional $1 Power Play, he or she would have doubled the non-jackpot prize to $2 million.
In addition to the $1M score, two other Virginia Powerball winners scored $50,000 each for matching four numbers plus the Powerball. One was purchased in Springfield (Giant Food, 8320 Old Keene Mill Road) and one in Orange (Joe’s Kwik Mart, 120 Berry Hill Road).
In all, Virginia Powerball players purchased 53,000 tickets that won a prize of some sort.
With the Powerball jackpot now reset, players are vying for a top prize of $20 million in the next drawing on Wednesday.
And hey, it’s not $700 million. But you could probably still have a pretty good time even with a jackpot that’s $680 million smaller.
Powerball interest benefits K-12 education
There’s nothing like a good lotto jackpot to get the country buzzing.
And sure, you could play Powerball for several lifetimes over and never defy those long 1 in 292 million odds of winning a jackpot.
But when Powerball top prize grows to silly and absurd levels, a $2 Powerball investment may have some ROI. It’s not exactly financial ROI. But it certainly provides some value when it comes to daydreaming, planning shopping sprees, and putting together a bucket list of lifetime adventures.
And all of that interest leads to a flurry of ticket sales. And as a result, it led to a VA Lottery profit of $17.7 million on Virginia Powerball sales. Ans by law, all of that money goes to K-12 public education in the commonwealth.
However, it could be a while before Old Dominion and other US states experience such lotto fever again. In addition to the Powerball jackpot resetting to $20 million, the Mega Millions jackpot recently reset and is now at $45 million after a player won a $431 million jackpot on Sept. 21.
