Powerball soars to $80m jackpot after no winner for fourth week
There has been no division-one Powerball winner for a fourth consecutive week, driving the jackpot to an eye-watering $80 million for next week's draw.
The incredible sum is the largest offered so far this year, with it last being up for grabs in July 2020.
While there was no division-one winner of Thursday night's $50 million, a total of 1,475,569 prizes worth more than $26.15 million were won in divisions two to nine.
This included six division-two winners, who were just one number shy of a multimillion-dollar win, taking home $120,658.25 each.
The winning numbers were 17, 1, 24, 12, 5, 9 and 19, while the Powerball number was 3.
The previous $80 million Powerball winners were a Victorian couple who took out the entire division-one prize pool.
“It took the Dromana couple four days to check their ticket and discover they were the mystery multi-millionaires we’d been searching for,” The Lott spokesperson Lauren Cooney said.
“It was the biggest lottery prize to ever land in Victoria and the couple said it gave them an enormous sense of freedom and peace of mind."
Ms Cooney said officials were expecting up to one in four Australian adults to have an entry in next week’s $80 million draw. The Lott’s division-one winning tally has now reached 334 so far this financial year.
In 2020, 14 Powerball division one winners across Australia pocketed more than $470.1 million in prize money.
Powerball offered an $80 million jackpot twice last year – the biggest prize offered by any Australian lottery game during the year.
The most recent major Powerball win was last month when a Sydney mum scooped $50 million in draw 1296.
She said she almost didn't buy a Powerball entry which she purchased from CTC Eastern in Maroubra, in the city's east.
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