No Powerball jackpot winner in the final drawing of 2023

When it was all said and done, 2023 only saw five Powerball jackpot winners after the final drawing of the year didn’t produce a winner.

The national jackpot climbed yet again, this time to an estimated $810 million after no one won Saturday night’s drawing, according to an update to the Powerball website late Saturday. The lump-sum option nets the winner $408.9 million.

The final drawing of 2023 took place Saturday night.

A single winner of Saturday’s drawing would have cleared $786 million, up from the previously announced $760 million prize. A single winner who chose all-at-once cash option would have won $396.8 million, up from the previously announced $383.6 million. Powerball reported Friday that Saturday’s drawing was the sixth-largest prize in the game’s history.

A single winner of last Wednesday’s drawing would have cleared $700 million with the all-at-once cash option being $352.4 million. According to a news release from Powerball, game leaders raised that jackpot the morning of the drawing from an estimated $685 million, citing strong ticket sales.

This is the fourth time the Powerball jackpot has surpassed over $500 million this year, the release from Powerball states. The jackpot was previously won on Oct. 11 when a ticket in California won a $1.765 billion grand prize. Since then, there have been 33 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.

Powerball winning numbers: Last drawing

The winning numbers from Saturday, Dec. 30 were 10, 11, 26, 27, 34 and Powerball 7.

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Getting your Powerball tickets

Those interested in getting tickets must get them before 6:45 p.m. on the day of the drawings to have a chance to win the giant prize. Tickets are available at all Washington Lottery retail locations. The drawings take place at 7:59 p.m. PT on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

According to a statement from Washington’s Lottery, Powerball also offers several add-on features, including Double Play for $1, a second-chance drawing at 8:30 p.m. with the chance to win up to $10 million, and Power Play for $1, which offers players the opportunity to multiply their non-jackpot winnings based on the Power Play multiplier randomly chosen at draw time.

How you can win the Powerball jackpot

Powerball is a national lottery game, a statement from Washington’s Lottery notes. Each play is $2. Players pick five numbers between one and 69 and one Powerball number between one and 26.

Alternatively, players may use Quick Pick by letting the computer select their numbers. With nine winning ball combinations, the more numbers that match those drawn, the more a player will win.

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2023’s Powerball jackpots

• Feb. 6, 2023: $754.6 million. The winning ticket was sold in the state of Washington.
• March 4, 2023: $162.2 million. The winning ticket was sold in Virginia.
• April 19, 2023: $252.6 million. The winning ticket was sold in Ohio.
• July 19, 2023: $1.08 billion. The winning ticket was sold in California.
• Oct. 11, 2023: $1.765 billion. The winning ticket was sold in California.

What are the odds of winning a Powerball jackpot?

The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are about one in 292.2 million, The Associated Press noted in its past coverage of large game prizes.

That winless streak shouldn’t be a surprise because it shows the game is operating as it was designed. The immense jackpot odds are intended to make winning rare so the grand prizes can grow so large. People may say they would be satisfied with winning a smaller sum, but it’s the giant jackpots that prompt people to drop money on Powerball tickets.

When someone wins the big prize and the jackpot reverts to about $20 million, sales drop dramatically. Those sales then rise steadily along with the top prize.

Plenty of people buy Powerball tickets, but sales are far less than seven or eight years ago, when jackpots began to grow much larger after a change in the game’s odds. Before the jackpot odds worsened in 2015 from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million, more people won the top prizes, so they didn’t grow so massive.

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Why promoted jackpots and cash values vary so much

Lotteries promote the larger jackpot, but the prize everyone is dreaming of is half that amount or less. That’s because the promoted prize is for a one winner who is paid over 30 years through an annuity, in which the announced prize is invested and pays more over time.

Under the annuity plan, winners will receive an immediate payment and then 29 annual payments that rise by 5% each year until finally reaching the original promoted total.

As interest rates have risen in the past year, the cash prize has generated much larger annuity prizes. Winners rarely take the annuity option, but that’s the big number that is displayed on lottery billboards.

Editors’ note: This item originally was published early on Dec. 25. It has been updated and republished multiple times since then.

Contributing: The Associated Press