Community Corner

$1.5B Powerball Jackpot For Saturday, Nov. 5: What To Know In FL

With Saturday's Powerball jackpot climbing to $1.5 billion, here's what you need to know before playing in Florida.

With Saturday’s Powerball jackpot soaring to $1.5 billion, here’s what you need to know before playing in Florida.
With Saturday’s Powerball jackpot soaring to $1.5 billion, here’s what you need to know before playing in Florida. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

FLORIDA — The Powerball jackpot has soared to a mind-boggling $1.5 billion for the Saturday, Nov. 5, drawing after no one matched the winning numbers Wednesday. Players in Florida need to pick up their tickets by 10 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday for a chance at the near-record lottery prize.

In Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, the winning numbers were 02, 11, 22, 35 and 60, with a Powerball of 23.

In Florida, while there were no big-ticket winners, 26 tickets matched four of the five numbers drawn, as well as the Powerball number, according to Florida Lottery. Of these ticketholders, 22 won $50,000 and four won $100,000 through the Power Play option.

Find out what's happening in Bradentonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Find out what's happening in Bradentonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Winners may choose to receive their prize as an annuity paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or they may take a cash payout, which is estimated at $745.9 million for the next game. Nearly all winners choose cash.

The estimated $1.5 billion jackpot is the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, and the second largest in the history of the Powerball game.

The jackpot has gone unclaimed since Aug. 3, and the longer it goes without a winner, the closer it comes to the world record $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016.

The odds of winning are abysmal, about 1 in 292.2 million. Odds of winning any prize are better, 1 in 24.9.

A Powerball ticket costs $2. For an additional $1 per ticket, players can multiply non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times with the Power Play feature. One caveat: The 10X multiplier is only available when the advertised jackpot annuity is $150 million or less.

To win the jackpot, a player must match all white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. Lottery officials say chances are higher when players don’t choose their own numbers. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years were picked by a computer.

Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to Powerball, more than half of all ticket sales remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold.

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