The latest Powerball jackpot stopped at $448 million after being rolled over several weeks and three lucky players split that amount. Lottery enthusiasts were looking forward for the draw and some were secretly hoping for nobody to match the winning numbers, so that the previous record could be broken. Following a lengthy drought, three players struck lucky and matched the five numbers and the Powerball, taking home almost $100 million each after paying taxes.
Two lottery winners are from New Jersey
Immediately after the winning numbers were announced, lottery officials announced that the $448 million Powerball jackpot was to be split between three players. One resides in Minnesota and the other two in New Jersey, with their lottery tickets reading 05, 25, 30, 58, 59 and 32 for the Powerball. Not much information has transpired in the media about the identity of the two winners from New Jersey, but what is certain is that the tickets were bought at an Acme Markets and a Super Stop & Shop.
As for the Minnesota winner, we are yet to learn his identity and the lucky convenience store that sold the winning ticket. Tens of thousands of players nationwide stormed these stores and bought more than tickets than on average, hoping to win the $448 million Powerball jackpot. Lottery officials confirmed the assumption that not only regular lottery players double their efforts before such massive draws, but also people who don’t usually buy tickets decide to put their luck to the test. That’s why the estimations of $425 million were surpassed by $23 million and the live telecast was watched by tens of thousands.
Lower tier prizes don’t create buzz
An interesting phenomenon regarding major lotteries is that second tier prizes are no longer stirring enthusiasm as players are quite used to jackpots. Back in the day, when someone won $10 million or any eight digit amount for that matter, the number of players purchasing tickets for the next show increased. Nowadays even the first category prizes are somewhat mundane and although this $448 million Powerball jackpot created the expected buzz it is the amount that made it happen. Lottery officials acknowledge the fact that they need to do something about second-tier prizes to reignite the interest for the games.
After the price of the Powerball ticket was increased from 1$ to $2, second-tier prizes were also doubled but this didn’t change public perception too much. Behavioral economists say that as the jackpots count in hundreds of million dollars, players start regarding second-tier prizes as trivial. For the time being, lottery officials don’t have any strategy for addressing the matter, although the obvious solution would be to increase the size of the lower tier prizes, even at the expense of the jackpot.
Check out the Winner of a record Powerball jackpot identity revealed as well.
More Lottery News:
About Joe Knapp
Hello, my name is Joe and you can find me on Google+. I`m lucky enough to be a part of LotteryCrunch.com’s fantastic team and an editor of LotteryPros.com at the same time. Every day we are looking for the best lottery draws, attractive offers, interesting events, latest news, lucky winners’ stories and hot promotions in order to make a life of the lottery players easier. Serving you is our constant priority!
