Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots rise as players can only bag second prizes
Both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots have been enjoying a string of rollovers of late, meaning that the jackpots have both soared as the lotteries have gone without winners.However, despite there being no jackpot winners to speak of lately, both of the USA’s multi-state lotteries provide million dollar second tier prizes, and these prize funds have been paid out week-in, week-out. Just last week, a Louisiana man found himself the claimant of a $1 million prize fund after he matched all five of the white numbers in the Powerball draw on September 10th.Louis Sims Junior stepped forward to Louisiana Lottery Headquarters to claim his prize, and received a total prize fund of $700,000 after federal and state taxes were withheld. Mr Sims bought his winning ticket at a Raceway #714 store in Bossier City, the owner of which will now receive a bonus prize of $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.Cody Hodges, owner of the store told lottery officials that he was delighted for his customer as well as for himself when he discovered that he had sold the winning ticket. The Powerball jackpot is currently worth an estimated $196 million, that’s a cash value of $116.9 million, and it will next be drawn on Saturday, September 20th.The Powerball isn’t the only lottery which is getting people’s attention, however, as the Mega Millions jackpot is currently worth an estimated $72 million for its next draw on Friday, September 19th. The jackpot was last drawn on Tuesday 16th, and was unable to find any players who could match all of the numbers.Tuesday’s draw did, however, find three second tier prize winners, all of whom matched the five main numbers 25, 45, 51, 53 and 73, missing only the Mega Ball of 2 which would have won them the jackpot. One of these second prize winning tickets was sold in Pennsylvania and will be worth $1 million before taxes, while the other two were both sold in California and will be worth $972,147 under the state’s pari-mutuel system.For your chance of winning a big prize, purchase your lottery tickets online at Lottery24.com.