Record-breaking Powerball jackpot prize grows to $2.3 BILLION as there’s still no winner

The Powerball jackpot has risen again to a dazzling $2.3 billion – the world’s highest ever lottery prize – after there were no winning tickets for the latest draw.

Lottery officials announced the stunning new prize on Tuesday morning.

The most recent draw took place on Tuesday after Monday’s scheduled draw was postponed.

The numbers for the Tallahassee, Florida draw were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the red Powerball was 10.

The drama of the postponed draw, followed by the news that no one had won the jackpot, caused social media to take off — with an avalanche of Powerball memes being shared online.

It’s not yet clear how many tickets were sold for the latest draw – but an estimated 280 million were sold for Saturday night’s draw, when the jackpot hit $1.6 billion.

By comparison, about 159 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election — about 63 percent of U.S. residents who are eligible to vote.

That means millions more tickets will likely be sold for Wednesday’s Powerball draw than the votes cast during Tuesday’s midterm exams.

Monday night’s draw for the bumper price was postponed after an unnamed state said it needed more time to process the sale.

Officials took the draw on Tuesday morning and also said new calculations revealed the jackpot was about $100 million more than the initial estimate of $1.9 billion.

But the lack of a winning ticket means the new prize is $2.3 billion. The next draw will take place on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s draw, which resulted in no winner, was initially scheduled for Monday night as millions of Americans eagerly awaited the results.

But the deadline came and went without notice, thanks to one of the 48 participating lotteries failing to submit all ticket sales and play data to the Multi State Lottery Association.

There was initial confusion as to whether the delay was caused by an outage or a technical issue, with the California Lottery announcing on Twitter that it came down to “security protocols” not being followed.

The Multi State Lottery Association later clarified that it was due to one state simply not getting through its sales fast enough to file them for the result.

The association said it was against its policy to say which lottery was delayed.

“Due to the length of the draw delay, it is likely that we will not know the official results of the Powerball draw until Tuesday morning,” the union said in a statement Monday night.

There was initial confusion caused by the California Lottery blaming the problem on a state not completing “security protocols.”

“Once the required security protocols are in place, the draw will be conducted under the supervision of lottery security officials and independent auditors,” the California Lottery tweet continues.

Winning numbers will be published as soon as they are available. Thanks for your patience.’

Twitter users were eager to take the opportunity to point out both the hilarious and “suspicious” side of the delay late Monday night.

‘Post what state THEY SHOULD BE DAMAGED,’ said one person.

“If the problem is someone won and you just don’t have the money, say it’s okay, I promise,” wrote another.

“Okay, what if you just tell the rest of us what the numbers are and we all promise we won’t leave that state behind,” one Twitter user responded to the California lottery.

“I think Florida. They don’t want to admit it because that’s where they do the drawing and it would be vague if they have an FL winner,” wrote another.

In April, a Powerball draw was delayed by more than four hours, also apparently due to a “glitch” that took longer to comply with proper protocols, according to WJW.

Just like last summer WCBD reported that a Powerball draw was postponed to give multiple lotteries extra time.

Monday’s prize was the largest since the 2016 $1.586 billion and had an estimated payout value of $929.1 million.

The amount was raised after no one came forward with a winning ticket in Saturday’s $1.6 billion contest.

The new $2.3 billion jackpot means that the prize pool has increased by about $700 million in just a few days.

Since then, there have been over 40 draws without a winner, pushing the prize to new heights.

To win the jackpot, a person must match all six numbers. The last win was on August 3, when a Pennsylvania resident won $206.9 million.

Powerball tickets cost $2 each and are sold in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

Winners can choose to take a series of payments over nearly three decades and receive nearly the $2 billion promised, or cash out for a single payment that is significantly taxed.

If several people win, the prize must be divided.

Before the winner can walk away with a single payment of approximately $929.1 million in prize money, a 24 percent federal tax will be withheld from gambling winnings.

This would immediately reduce that amount by $223 million for a single award winner, who, according to Forbes, would take home $706 million.

Then another $97 million will be drawn for the top federal marginal rate of 37 percent, which would lower the prize amount to $470 million.

For those who choose to receive payments in about 29 years, expect to get $50 million a year. But the federal tax would reduce that amount to $31.5 million annually, Forbes reported.

Depending on the state of the winner, more money can be raised.