Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Two tickets shared a massive $579.9m (£360m) jackpot in yesterday’s US Powerball lottery, with sales reaching 130,000 a minute across the country leading up to the draw on Wednesday evening, officials have confirmed.
The jackpot followed 16 consecutive draws that produced no top winner, boosting the Powerball to become the second-largest potential lottery payout in US history.
US lottery officials confirmed yesterday that two winning tickets were sold in Arizona and Missouri, with an additional 8,924,123 players taking home smaller prizes.
The huge sales volume, which was about six times the rate of the week before, prompted game officials to boost the jackpot twice in two days.
An estimated 90 per cent of the tickets sold were “quick picks” in which the players allowed computers to pick the numbers, adding an extra element of randomness to the number choices.
There had been no Powerball winner since 6 October, and the jackpot was initially posted at $425m, which was a record for the game. However, it was revised upward on Tuesday to $500m when brisk sales increased the payout. On Wednesday morning it was increased again to $550m and revised once again prior to the draw to $579.9m. That figure was rapidly closing ground on the $656m Mega Millions prize of March, the largest lottery jackpot in history.
“Sales have been so fast and so strong it’s difficult to keep up with the estimates,” said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.
It took nine weeks for the Mega Millions jackpot to get that high, before three winners – from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland – hit the right numbers, each collecting $218.6m for their share of the split.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments