The Powerball jackpot continues to swell after yet another unsuccessful drawing. While no one claimed the big jackpot, however, two players scooped up significant prizes.

The Drawing Handed Seven-Figure Prizes to Two Players

The September 21 drawing was largely unremarkable, resulting in no jackpot win. With some $197 million on the line, potential winners would have been in for a huge payday. The cash value of the jackpot, meanwhile, stood at $99 million, promising to change the life of anyone lucky enough to match all six numbers.

The winning white numbers, for reference, were 17, 19, 21, 37 and 45. The red Powerball stood at 14.

While no one succeeded in grabbing the Grand Prize, two American players won big, securing seven-figure prizes after matching all five white numbers. The players in question narrowly missed the jackpot but still earned huge sums of money.

One of them, from North Carolina, grabbed $1 million for matching the five white numbers. The other winning ticket was sold in Florida and secured $2 million instead since its player had the Power Play option active.

Power Play, for context, is an optional feature that multiplies players’ wins for a small additional sum. Power Play costs $1 and could multiply winnings by up to x10, depending on the size of the win. 

The Stakes Are Getting Higher

As no one won the big prize, it will now carry on to the next drawing. Set to take place in some 12 hours from the time of this writing, the September 23 drawing will provide players with a shot at an even bigger jackpot.

The jackpot is currently standing at $208 million, according to official estimates, with a cash value of $104.6 million.

The previous Powerball jackpot was won fairly quickly by a player from California. The size of the jackpot at the time was $44.3 million. This win came just several days after a player from Pennsylvania secured the previous $213.8 million jackpot.

In the meantime, the Mega Millions jackpot was reset just recently after a very lucky Texan player won $800 million. This came soon after a Hard Rock Bet player turned their online wager into a $136,520.36 payday.

An elderly woman from Grand Traverse County, Michigan, was pleasantly surprised by an unexpected windfall after winning a jackpot of more than $200,000. [Read more…] about Michigan: 70-Year-Old Lottery Player Wins $206K Second Chance Jackpot

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350 and while millions of players tried to hit the grand prize, nobody guessed correctly the winning numbers from its latest draw. On Friday, two players came close to the grand prize by matching five numbers, but nobody guessed correctly all drawn numbers which were white balls 10, 17, 20, 24 and 54, along with the gold Mega Ball 8.

Considering the survival of the Mega Millions grand prize on Friday, the jackpot is now estimated at the mind-blowing $681 million or $336.1 million in cash. The next drawing for the hefty prize is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3 at 11 PM ET.

In case a fortunate player beats the 1 in 302.5 million odds, they would win the seventh largest jackpot in the history of Mega Millions. What’s more, since the launch of the popular lottery game in 2002, 22 jackpots have been won in September.

The most recent Mega Millions grand prize that dropped in September was a $431 million jackpot from 2021. At the time, a fortunate player from New York won the grand prize from the game’s drawing on September 21, 2021. Still, in case a lucky winner matches all numbers on the upcoming drawing, they would be winning the largest-ever prize won in September.

Nearly 1.5M Lottery Players Win Prizes from the Recent Draw

While the jackpot continues to grow, so does the interest in Mega Millions. The latest draw saw 1,445,634 winning tickets within all prize tiers except for the jackpot.

Two fortunate players matched five numbers on the latest draw. One lucky winner from Wisconsin matched five numbers and paid extra for the game’s Megaplier, allowing them to win a $4 million prize, considering the 4x Megaplier on Friday. The second lucky player from Florida won the standard $1 million prize.

A total of 50 winners matched four white balls along with the gold Mega ball on Friday’s drawing. While six lucky players collected a $40,000 Megaplier prize each, the remaining 44 took home the standard $10,000 prize each.

On the other hand, a total of 1,105 Mega Millions players matched four numbers from the latest draw. While 239 of those won $2,000 Megaplier prize each, the remaining collected the standard prize of $500 each.

The last time an incredibly fortunate player won the game’s jackpot was early in June. At the time, a player from Illinois matched all winning numbers from the Mega Millions draw on June 4, winning the mind-boggling $552 million jackpot.