Powerball jackpots to $80 million after prize unclaimed for five weeks
The Powerball jackpot has climbed to $80 million for next Thursday’s draw after no entries claimed the division one prize for the fifth week in a row.
This week’s draw boasted a division one prize of $50 million, but no entries held the seven winning numbers and the all-important Powerball number to win.
The winning numbers from Thursday’s draw were 26, 15, 16, 6, 1, 21 and 10 and the Powerball number was 19.
The last time someone claimed the division one prize was in May. The man from Logan, Queensland, said he planned on cluing his family in to his fortune by pulling into their driveway in a new flashy car.
Despite no one winning the $50 million division one, a total of 1,550,312 prizes worth more than $28.49 million were won in divisions two to nine.
This included four division two winners, who each take home $197,292.35.
According to The Lott, this is the seventh time in the game’s 24-year history the jackpot has climbed to $80 million, and people will be able to try their luck to see if they can win in next Thursday’s draw.
If someone was to win the $80 million next week, it would only be the second time a person had won the $80 million Powerball prize.
“While we’ve certainly seen Powerball jackpots rocket all the way to $150 million, only one other Aussie has taken home an $80 million Powerball prize – the farmer from the Port Macquarie region who won earlier this year,” The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said.
“If we have one $80 million Powerball winner next week, they will become the equal third-biggest individual lottery winner in Australia.
“They’d only be surpassed by a Sydney healthcare worker who scored a $107 million Powerball prize in January 2019 and a Chatswood Dad who scored a $96 million Lucky Lotteries Mega Jackpot prize in August last year.”
The Port Macquarie farmer who won the $80 million said his family had been impacted by the drought and bushfires and said he would be purchasing a satellite TV with his prize.
“I’ve always wanted a satellite TV to get better stations,” he said.
This year, there have been five Powerball division one winners in Australia, and they have won their share in more than $189.9 million in prize money.
Three of the winners have hailed from Queensland while NSW and Victoria have both been home to one division one winner each.
In the last financial year, about 130 million winners took home more than $3.3 billion in prize money from their favourite games at the Lott, and in the 12 months since June 30, Australia’s Official Lotteries contributed more than $1.4 billion through state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives.
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