Another player has come close to winning the coveted $623 million Powerball jackpot, missing out on the huge prize by failing to match a single number. Despite that, the player will take $1 million back home, which is still a reason to celebrate.
According to lottery officials, the winning ticket was sold in Michigan. It was purchased online, according to the Michigan Lottery, and matched five of the six winning numbers for the March 16 drawing. For reference, Powerball players must match five white balls and a single Powerball.
The winning ticket only failed to match the Powerball, which landed on 5 for the March 16 drawing. For reference, the other winning numbers were 12, 23, 44, 57 and 61.
The Michigan player was not the only one to narrowly miss out on a huge payday as other tickets, sold in New Jersey and South Carolina, also matched all five white numbers but failed to match the Powerball.
For reference, the chances to win the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.
The Jackpot Remains Unclaimed
This is not the first time someone has failed to win the Powerball jackpot just barely. Earlier this month, a player from Florida also succeeded in matching all five white balls but failed to correctly predict the Powerball number.
The player in question had correctly picked the 30, 36, 49, 52 and 62 white numbers. While they couldn’t guess the Powerball number correctly, they still took a huge prize of a million back home. The ticket in question was sold at City Food Mart in Haines City.
In the meantime, the March 18 drawing also failed to elect a winner. Instead, five people took $1 million after matching the five white balls. Two of these tickets were sold in Texas, while the rest were sold in Virginia, Maryland and Minnesota.
Now, the Powerball jackpot has an estimated value of $687 million and a cash value of $327.3 million. The next drawing is scheduled for March 20, 16 hours from the time of this writing.
In January, a lucky player from Michigan struck gold, winning the $842 Powerball jackpot. This was notably the first time someone had won the Powerball jackpot on New Year’s Day.