Powerball’s $150 million Division 1 prize split between three tickets

The record $150 million Powerball prize has been drawn and three lucky winners will share in a whopping $50m each.

Powerball’s $150 million prize has been drawn and three lucky winners — two from Queensland and one from NSW — will receive $50 million each.

The numbers for tonight’s draw were 26, 4, 17, 5, 18, 8 and 31, and the Powerball was 9.

There were 18 Division 2 prize winners who receive more than $125,000 each and 267 Division 3 prize winners who receive $5187 each.

Earlier, the official Powerball website crashed under the weight of too much traffic.

“We are currently experiencing issues with the Search Powerball Results function due to a high volume of traffic,” a statement on the site reads.

“We are working hard to bring the system back online. Apologies for the inconvenience.”

The Powerball jackpotted after no one picked the division one numbers in last week’s $100 million draw.

If one punter had won Thursday’s draw, it would have dwarfed the previous record for the biggest individual lottery win in Australia’s history of $107.6 million set earlier this year.

The winning numbers were 27, 28, 10, 20, 11, 30, 31 and Powerball 2.

The Lott spokeswoman Bronwyn Spencer said 2019 continued to be a record-breaking year for Australian lotteries with Powerball venturing into unexplored territory once again.

“Never before has there been such a strong sequence of high Powerball jackpots like the one we’ve witnessed during the past 12 months,” Ms Spencer said in a statement.

“It wasn’t that long ago in August 2018, that we saw an Australian lottery record set when Powerball offered $100 million for the first time in the game’s history. Then in January, we saw another record blown away when one Sydney woman took home the entire division one prize pool of the mind-blowing $107 million Powerball jackpot.

“Just six months later we saw Powerball reach a new high of $110 million in July, which was shared by three division one winning entries who took home $36.6 million each. Who would have known just months later this record would be surpassed again by next Thursday’s $150 million offer.”

Ms Spencer said tonight’s draw could be historic in more ways than one.

“If one single entry takes home the entire $150 million jackpot next week, needless to say, it would be the biggest Australian lottery prize ever won by a single entry,” she said. “This would surpass the previous record by a mind-blowing $43 million.”

Last week The Lott revealed the hot and cold numbers.

“While Powerball is a random game of chance, and every number has an equal chance of being drawn, there are some numbers we have seen drawn out of the barrel more often than others,” The Lott spokeswoman Lauren Cooney said.

“Players interested in trying their hand at choosing their numbers may mark ‘hot’ numbers in the hope they live up to their reputation of being drawn more often.

“Or would they choose to use ‘cold’ numbers in the belief their turn to be drawn is just around the corner?

“We’ve even had previous winners tell us they avoid both sets of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ numbers, instead picking those numbers that aren’t getting any attention.”

For the “main barrel”, where seven numbers are drawn from 35, the hot number over the last 16 months is 17, closely followed by 2, while the cold number is 12.

For the Powerball barrel, where the single number between one and 20 is drawn, there are three hot numbers — 3, 13, and 19. Number 1 hasn’t been drawn at all over that period and 18 has only come up once.

There were eight division two winners in Thursday’s draw who each took home $173,767.85. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Superstitious Australians shared their unusual lucky charms last week. From a rabbit’s foot to a cat’s whisker, one in five lottery players say they leaned on superstitions and would refuse to purchase their ticket without their favoured charm.

“While some players place their trust in more traditional lucky charms, like a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe, or a spiritual figurine, others use more unique and personal items,” The Lott spokesman Matt Hart said.

“One player said they always carried their lucky numbers scribbled on a decade-old napkin, another had collected their cat’s whiskers after they fell out, while one lady told us she always kept a piece of ginger in her handbag.

“Many admitted they’d never even think about leaving the house without their lucky charm and certainly wouldn’t buy a lottery ticket if they weren’t holding on to it.”

The record for Australia’s biggest individual lottery win was set in January this year when a Sydney woman took home $107,575,649.08.

At the time, the healthcare worker, who wished to remain anonymous, shocked many by insisting she would keep working despite her bulging bank account.

She said she planned to share her winnings with her family, give “a whole slab of money” to her favourite charity, and perhaps even “buy a caravan and travel around”.

“I’m so passionate about my job. It will drive me to do more health work for causes important to me,” she told The Lott at the time.

“I’m not quite sure what to do but of course I will be helping my family.”

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