With just a few hours remaining before her prize would have expired, a New York woman made her way to the lottery headquarters last week to collect her $1 million Powerball jackpot.
Patricia Hastings, hailing from Washingtonville, New York, successfully claimed her $1 million prize last Thursday after matching the first five numbers in the Powerball drawing held on October 26, 2022.
Hastings purchased her winning ticket at Cumberland Farms on 38 Brookside Rd. in Chester, New York.
The winning numbers for the October 26, 2022 drawing were 19, 36, 37, 46, 56, with the Powerball number being 24. Her deadline for claiming the ticket was set for October 26, 2023.
After the necessary withholdings, Hastings opted for a single lump-sum payment of $651,000 instead of an annuity.
During the fiscal year 2022-2023, New York's Powerball game generated a total of $516,866,283 in sales, and school districts in Orange County received $125,279,486 in Lottery Aid to Education funds.
What Are the Odds of Winning the Powerball?
While the allure of a massive $100 million jackpot may entice some lottery players, it's crucial to recognize that the chances of winning Powerball's top prize are exceptionally slim.
The odds of hitting a Powerball jackpot stand at about 1 in 292.2 million.
The overall odds of winning any Powerball prize (across all prize tiers) are approximately 1 in 24.9.
To participate in the Powerball game, players can purchase a ticket for $2 per play. The game requires selecting five numbers from one to 69 for the white balls and one number from one to 26 for the red Powerball. Alternatively, players can choose to receive randomly generated numbers.
To claim the jackpot, all five white ball numbers and the red Powerball number must match.
In addition to the grand prize, Powerball offers eight other prize tiers based on the number of matched balls in non-jackpot categories.
The non-jackpot prizes range from $4 to $1 million, and by adding an extra $1 for the "Powerplay" feature, non-jackpot winnings can be multiplied by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 times.
Powerball notes that the 10X Powerplay option is exclusively applicable to jackpots of $150 million or less, and the "Match 5" prize for the second tier is capped at $2 million when the Powerplay feature is used.
Some jurisdictions also offer an additional feature called "Double Play," allowing players another opportunity to match their numbers after each Powerball drawing for an extra $1 per play. Photo by Santeri Viinamäki, Wikimedia commons.