An unidentified Mississippi Powerball player won $2 million after matching all five white balls in Wednesday night’s drawing, state lottery officials said. The ticket, purchased at Doc’s Quick Stop Exxon in Byhalia, matched the white balls 3, 19, 35, 51 and 67 to initially win $1 million and doubled the prize to $2 million by adding the $1 Power Play option, officials said.
The player selected his or her own numbers rather than using a computer-generated Quick Pick, lottery officials said. The win was part of a nationwide event the Multi-State Lottery Association called a “Night of Millionaires.”
The Multi-State Lottery Association said jackpot-winning tickets in Indiana and Kansas split an estimated $143 million top prize, with an estimated cash value of $65 million. The association said an additional 89 players across the country also became millionaires that night, bringing the total to 91 new millionaires.
The association said the winning white-ball numbers formed a straight vertical line on many Powerball play slips, a pattern some winners reported using. Mississippi’s play slip is structured differently and would not have allowed that straight-line selection, lottery officials said. The Mississippi winner was among 27 players nationwide who doubled a $1 million prize by purchasing the Power Play feature, the association said.
The Powerball jackpot reset to an estimated $20 million with an estimated cash value of $9.1 million for the next drawing on Saturday, the association said. Lottery officials urged players to play responsibly and urged anyone with a gambling problem to call the National Council on Problem Gambling’s helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
