New York's Powerball Jackpot Bumped to $325,000,000 For Saturday

New jackpot is third largest in game history

SCHENECTADY, NY (02/10/2012)(readMedia)-- The New York Lottery today announced the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing has been increased to $325,000,000. The $15,000,000 bump is due to brisk sales across all participating Powerball states.

The new jackpot marks the third largest Powerball jackpot in the game's 20-year history. The largest Powerball jackpot to date was $365,000,000, won in Nebraska in 2006. The largest jackpots ever were two Mega Millions jackpots, $390,000,000 (split by players in GA and NJ) in 2007 and $380,000,000 (split by players in ID and WA) in 2011.

The New New York Lottery has awarded jackpot prizes to three New York Powerball players since the start of sales in 2010. New Yorkers receiving a Powerball jackpot include:

• Christine and Jeff Pintuff of Wilton, Saratoga County who split the $48.8M jackpot drawn on Christmas Day, 2010. The couple spent $1 on a set of Quick Pick numbers.

• Stephen Kirwan of Purling, Greene County who won the $122M jackpot drawn on January 22, 2011 The retired NYC fireman spent $5 on his own randomly selected numbers.

• A group of 20 co-workers from a Costco store in Melville, NY who split the$201.9M jackpot drawn on June 1, 2011. Each member of the group kicked in $2 per week to the Powerball pool. The group only played when the jackpot reached $100,000,000 or more.

The new Powerball game, which is proving to be very popular with players, also features an automatic $1,000,000 cash prize for matching the first five numbers drawn.

About the New York Lottery

The New York Lottery continues to be North America's largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing over $3 billion in fiscal year 2010-2011 to help support education in New York State. The Lottery's aid represents over 15 percent of total state education funding to local school districts.

Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education. It takes into account both a school district's size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.