MIDDLETOWN — The jackpot for Saturday night’s Powerball drawing has swelled to a $535 annuity or a $340.1 million cash prize, according to the Pennsylvania Lottery.
It’s the game’s fifth-highest jackpot on record, the Pennsylvania Lottery says.
The jackpot initially rolled to $510 million annuity or $324.2 million in cash after Wednesday’s drawing produced no big winners (although a Luzerne County Powerball with Power Play ticket produced one $150,000 winner).
“With a jackpot above the half-billion dollar mark, Powerball tickets are selling like solar eclipse glasses – but tickets are much easier to find in stores,” said Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko, who noted that this is the game’s largest jackpot since the run-up to the world-record jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in early 2016.
Svitko reminded players to please play responsibly. Tickets will remain on sale in Pennsylvania until 9:59 p.m. Saturday. The televised drawing takes place at 11 p.m. in Tallahassee, Florida.
Pennsylvania Lottery has sold 17 Powerball jackpot-winning tickets since joining the multi-state game 15 years ago this summer. The largest Powerball prize Pennsylvania has ever awarded was a $110.2 million cash-value jackpot claimed by a New Jersey couple in May 2004. The state’s largest Powerball group win was a $107.5 million cash jackpot shared by 48 transit workers from the Philadelphia area in April 2012.