// a href = ./ //

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize.

Lottery officials say the prize is growing quickly Friday because so many people have been purchasing the $2 tickets. The jackpot has grown by an estimated $236 million since the last drawing on Wednesday.

The last jackpot was won on March 30, so it's been growing for about six weeks. The next drawing is Saturday night.

The largest jackpot ever was a $656 million Mega Millions prize won in March 2012. The prize was split three ways with winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.

Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are about 1 in 175 million.

   The Powerball jackpot for tonight's drawing is again in record territory.  Missouri Lottery officials have announced the top prize has increased to $360 million, the third-largest jackpot in the game's history.  The cash option is now worth an estimated $229.2 million before taxes.  Players have until 8:59 p.m. CDT to purchase tickets.  

   Lottery officials say it's okay to dream, as long as players are responsible.  They say even with a big prize like this one, it only takes one $2 ticket to win.   

   The Mega Millions jackpot for tonight’s drawing is also high -- an estimated $170 million.  It costs just $1 for a chance at that prize. 

The convenience store that sold a winning lottery ticket last month, may be luckier than the jackpot winner.

A QuikTrip on Lindbergh in Florissant sold its second grand prize winning ticket in the last year. The store sold a ticket worth $1.1 million in April of 2012--both times the store got a $5,000 bonus.

The most recent jackpot winner is Kenneth Yates of Florissant, he will take home $2.7 million.

 

Another Missouri Lottery jackpot winner from the St. Louis area.

The newest winner bought the ticket for the Saturday drawing at a St. Peters Dierbergs. Just a week before the newest winner, another person bought a ticket in St. Louis County that is worth $2.7 million.

This past weekend's jackpot was $1.1 million.

 

FLORISSSANT, Mo. (AP) - Someone is holding a $2.7 million winning Missouri Lotto ticket, but lottery officials don't yet know who the lucky person is.

The Lotto ticket purchased at a QuikTrip in the St. Louis County town of Florissant matched all six numbers in the drawing from Saturday. The winning numbers are 14, 20, 21, 24, 25 and 35.

There were other winners over the weekend, too. Lottery officials say someone in Hannibal won $250,000 playing Mega Millions on Friday, and a $232,000 Show Me Cash ticket was sold Saturday in St. Louis.

Anyone with a winning ticket should sign the back and has 180 days from the drawing to claim the prize at Missouri Lottery offices in St. Louis, Jefferson City, Springfield and Kansas City.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A single ticket sold in New Jersey matched all six numbers in Saturday night's drawing for the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said. It was the 13th drawing held in the days since a Virginia man won a $217 million jackpot Feb. 6.

Thirteen other tickets worth $1 million each matched all but the final Powerball number on Saturday night. Those tickets were sold in New Jersey and 10 other states. Lottery officials said there was also one Power Play Match 5 winner in Iowa.

The New Jersey Lottery said Sunday that details about the winning ticket would be released Monday, declining to reveal where it had been purchased and whether anyone had immediately come forward. It was the sixth largest jackpot in history.

The numbers drawn were 17, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31. A lump sum payout would be $221 million.

Lottery officials said the 13 tickets worth $1 million apiece — matching the first five numbers but missing the Powerball — were sold in Arizona, Florida (2), Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina and Virginia.

Powerball said on its website that the grand prize jackpot has now been reset to an estimated $40 million or a lump sum cash amount estimated at $25 million for Wednesday's next drawing.

No one had won the Powerball jackpot since early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket and elected a cash lump sum for his $217 million jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November. The winning numbers were picked on two different tickets — one by a couple in Missouri and the other by an Arizona man — and the jackpot was split.

Nebraska still holds the record for the largest Powerball jackpot won on a single ticket — $365 million. That jackpot was won by eight workers at a Lincoln, Neb., meatpacking plant in February 2006.

Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.

Powerball said on its website that the game is played every Wednesday and Saturday night when five white balls are drawn from a drum of 59 balls and one red ball is picked from a drum with 35 red balls. It added that winners of the Powerball jackpot can elect to be paid out over 29 years at a percentage set by the game's rules — or in a lump sum cash payment.