The stakes are already impossibly high – and there’s a chance they could get higher still.
At 10:07 p.m. Monday, eight minutes after the winning numbers of the historic $1.9 billion Powerball drawing were scheduled to be revealed, the drawing was delayed due to one of the participating lotteries needing “extra time to complete its security protocols,” according to California Lottery.
The drawing eventually took place on Tuesday morning, Reuters reports.
The winning numbers are: 10-33-41-47-56-Power 10
To win the jackpot, a player must match all five white balls in any order – plus the final red Powerball number. Smaller prizes can be won by matching fewer numbers, North Carolina’s lottery explains. Tickets cost $2 each.
Monday’s jackpot had been expected to be $1.9 billion but was $2.04 billion by the time of the drawing, the Associated Press reports.
If no winner is announced for the Monday draw, the top prize for Wednesday’s drawing will grow larger still.
About an hour and a half later, at 11:38 p.m., another update was tweeted.
The Multi-State Lottery Association confirmed the reasons for the delay, saying that a participating lottery needed additional time to process sales, The Associated Press reported. All 48 jurisdictions must meet the security protocols before a drawing. Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
The current Powerball jackpot started at $20 million on Aug. 6 and has grown over three winless months. Lottery officials estimated that the odds of drawing the winning number at 1 is 292.2 million.
