Powerball Action Intensifies as Dozens of Players Narrowly Miss $1B Jackpot

As the top Powerball prize continues to soar, more and more players have joined the prize for the $1 billion+ jackpot. The latest drawing saw the game crown dozens of winners of six and seven-figure prizes, although the big pot remained elusive.

Powerball Jackpot Grows Beyond $1B

The Saturday Powerball drawing failed to elect a big winner, with everyone’s shots missing the grand prize. This isn’t to say that all players were equally unlucky, though, as some came closer to the mouth-watering jackpot and were rewarded appropriately for their effort.

The Powerball jackpot stood at $1.06 billion for the Saturday drawing, with a lump sum option of $484.6 million. The winning numbers drawn on December 13 were 1, 28, 31, 57, and 58, while the Powerball was 16.

While no one was fortunate enough to correctly guess all five white numbers and the Powerball, a few were one number short of the jackpot and were awarded various prizes. These included seven recipients of seven-figure sums who managed to nail all numbers correctly, with the exception of the Powerball.

Five of these players got $1 million. Powerball noted that these included players from California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and Virginia. The remaining two had the Power Play feature active, netting them $2 million instead. These included one player from North Carolina and one player from Pennsylvania.

In addition to that, dozens of players managed to correctly guess four white numbers and the Powerball. These included 49 regular players who took $50,000 each, as well as 12 Power Play players who took $100,000 each instead.

In the meantime, the jackpot continues to grow and is currently standing at some $1.1 billion with a cash option of $503.4 million. The next drawing is set to take place in 12 hours from the time of this publication.

Mega Millions Jackpots Landed

While the Powerball jackpot continues to grow, Mega Millions players had better luck and just won two jackpots within several days of one another. These included the legendary $980 million Mega Millions jackpot, which went to a player in Georgia, as well as a smaller $90 million jackpot that was claimed by a player in New Jersey.

In other jackpot news, the California Lottery just crowned five winners of prizes of $1 million. All of these prizes were won from scratch-off tickets, according to the lottery’s official announcement.