Powerball’s $50m mystery winner found

Powerball’s mystery winner has been found after it jackpotted again to $8 million, and experts explain punters’ odds.

Powerball’s mystery winner has been found after it jackpotted again to $8 million, and experts explain punters’ odds.

Thursday’s draw 1219 had the following numbers: 33, 30, 25, 26, 22, 9, 27 and the Powerball number was 19.

But no players took out the first division prize of $3 million, leading it to increase to $8 million for next week.

One person won a second division prize of $171,425.50.

The Lott spokeswoman Lauren Cooney told News Corp that unlike the Melbourne Cup, the odds of winning Powerball do not change — no matter how large the jackpot is.

“With record-breaking jackpots like last week’s $150 million jackpot, participation from players across the country increases, meaning it’s more likely the winning combination of numbers will be held by a player and the jackpot prize will be won,” she said.

It comes as the search for a third division one winner of the $150 million Powerball draw has ended.

An Ipswich grandmother checked her ticket to discover she’s the third division one winner lottery officials had been searching for.

The winning entry was not registered to a player card.

She contacted Golden Casket, holding the $50 million winning entry, to confirm her win.

“Thank you,” she laughed with relief.

Powerball has a $3 million jackpot this week. Picture: Supplied

“I can’t believe it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to believe it until I called you but now I’m on the phone to you and I still don’t believe it!

“I checked my ticket about one million times last night on the app and then again on the website.

“I was shaking. I was completely overwhelmed and still am!”

The winning numbers in Powerball’s $150 million draw on Thursday September 19 were 26, 4, 17, 5, 18, 8 and 31. The Powerball number was 9.

Lotto experts say there are a number of ways to determine if you’re closer to a win.

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The retiree revealed she had heard lottery officials had narrowed down the search for last week’s third Powerball division one winner to Ipswich, although she thought there was no way it could be her.

“I kept putting off checking my ticket because I was waiting to hear that someone else had claimed the prize,” she explained.

“But then when I hadn’t heard an update, I thought to myself ‘I’d better check that ticket’.

“I always buy a ticket into the big jackpot draws but just like everyone else, you never actually think it’s going to be you!”

REGISTER ONLINE TO PLAY

This can be the difference between getting a phone call straight from The Lott — or being one of many mystery winners whose prize money sits unclaimed.

Players should also register their entries to a player card.

THE POPULAR NUMBERS

First of all, every number has an equal chance of being drawn in a lottery.

But, in the past 16 months some numbers have appeared more often than others.

From the main barrel, where seven winning numbers are drawn from 1 to 35 the most frequently drawn numbers are 17, 2, 11, while the least frequently drawn numbers are 12 and 26.

From the Powerball barrel, where one Powerball number is drawn from 1 to 20, the most frequently drawn numbers are 3 and 19, while the least frequently drawn number is 1 (which hasn’t made a single appearance).

WINNING ENTRY TYPES

Of the eight Powerball division one winners so far this year, there was an even split between those who won by marking their entry with their special numbers and those who won with a QuickPick entry, where the lottery terminal randomly chose the numbers.

A quarter of the winning entries were Powerhit entries, a special kind of entry unique to Powerball that guarantees the all-important Powerball number that you need to win division one.

Originally published as Powerball’s $50m mystery winner found