Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be an overnight millionaire? The unclaimed Powerball jackpot might just satiate this curiosity of yours. The Saturday, June 8 drawing did not yield any winners for all five numbers plus the Powerball. As a result, the grand prize for Monday, June 10, drawing catapulted to a staggering $221 million.
Monday’s Powerball, an enthrallingly enticing, one-of-a-kind lottery brought forth the enigmatic digits 3-10-33-58-59, with Powerball being 9 and PowerPlay set at 2x. Picking perfectly from these numbers could’ve bagged an ordinary American a mind-boggling sum that could undoubtedly spark life-changing decisions. Saturday’s participants tried their fortunes as well, where the winning numbers were 8-38-52-54-64, Powerball 15, and an amplified 3x Power Play, but unfortunately, no one claimed triumph.
Tickets for this potential fortune-changer start as low as $2. Winning one of these could easily be akin to stumbling upon a pot of gold, but what happens when your golden ticket happens to be from an old hat? If you bought your ticket in Wisconsin, the prize must be claimed within 180 days from the drawing date. Beyond that, your golden ticket goes into the category of expired tickets. But rest assured that any unclaimed prize money is deposited to the Wisconsin Lottery property tax relief fund, as Wisconsin Lottery rules state.
Weathering the odds of Powerball may seem like finding a needle in the haystack, as players have only a 1 in 292.2 million chance to match all six numbers. Powerball drawings take place at 10 p.m. CDT every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, offering prizes ranging from a humble $2 to the grand prize jackpot that fluctuates. Interestingly, these odds remain constant regardless of whether you’re eyeing a $20 million or a $1 billion jackpot.
Your chances of remaining an anonymous millionaire in Wisconsin are slim. The state’s open record laws demand lottery organizers release the name and city of the winner, upon request. Nonetheless, to claim your prize, the method varies based on the size of your winnings. For prizes below $599, you can either collect your prize at retailers, visit the Wisconsin Lottery offices at Madison or Milwaukee, or post your winning tickets to the provided address.
However, for anything reaching $600 and going up to $199,999, we suggest visiting the offices personally or mailing the signed tickets. Any prize exceeding $200,000 necessitates a visit to the Madison office in Wisconsin, where you’ll need to schedule a time for processing your ticket.
A staggering 11 lottery jackpots have hit or surpassed the billion-dollar mark as of June 10, 2024, even one surpassing the $2 billion milestone. The top three Powerball jackpots in history include the $2.04 billion – won by a Californian on Nov. 7, 2022; $1.765 billion – again claimed by a Californian on Oct. 11, 2023; and $1.586 billion – shared among three lucky winners from California, Florida, and Tennessee on Jan. 13, 2016.
If we look beyond Powerball, the top 10 all-time biggest lottery jackpots in U.S. history feature both Mega Millions and Powerball. At number one is the $2.04 billion Powerball from Nov. 7, 2022, while the tenth position is held by a $1.08 billion Powerball drawing from July 19, 2023.