Albuquerque – The Powerball® jackpot is now $1.4 billion for Wednesday’s January 13th draw.
No one won Saturday night’s U.S. record Powerball jackpot of $947.9 million.
New Mexico Lottery sold more than $8.49 million in Powerball tickets in the last week. That translates to 2.68 tickets sold for every adult in New Mexico. Saturday’s New Mexico Lottery Powerball sales averaged about $4,000 per minute and peaked at about $8,200 per minute (68 tickets per second).
Prior to this week, the Lottery’s highest overall sales week was in August 2001 at just over $11 million. Last week’s sales broke that record by approximately $18,000 and raised $3.3 million for Legislative Lottery Scholarships. New Mexico Lottery CEO David Barden said, “The timing of this jackpot run could not have been better for our students as the lottery was in the process of discussing whether to reduce midyear sales projections for legislative lottery scholarships. I hope this jackpot will alleviate the need to reduce our estimate this year. It is very unfortunate we have to depend so much on online games like Powerball to our bottom line when a change in our scratcher ticket portfolio could provide more dollars for student scholarships. I hope this year we have an opportunity legislatively to discuss this issue.”
Now that the jackpot has broken the billion-dollar ceiling, sales are anticipated to climb even higher. The Lottery reminds players to please play responsibly.
Please Play Responsibly
New Mexico Lottery CEO David Barden says, “It only takes one ticket to win. Please play responsibly and be familiar with player safeguards. Sign your ticket, check your numbers, and listen for the winner tune when you have a winning ticket checked. New Mexico Lottery tickets expire 90 days from the date of the drawing.”
Players in New Mexico have until 8 p.m. MT Wednesday to buy a ticket for the next drawing, which takes place at approximately 8:59 p.m. MT.
How to Play Powerball
Powerball is played in 47 lotteries. The game was last updated in October 2015 with changes aimed at delivering big jackpots while increasing other significant prizes in the game. Players choose five numbers from 1 to 69 and one Powerball number from 1 to 26. Players can also ask for a “quick pick,” a set of numbers chosen randomly by the lottery’s gaming system. Each wager costs $2.
In addition to the jackpot, there are eight prize levels from $4 to $1 million. The game’s Power Play option multiples non-jackpot prizes and will double the $1 million prize to $2 million automatically. Power Play costs an additional $1 per play per drawing.
The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are approximately 1 in 292 million. The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are approximately 1 in 25.
Legislative Lottery Scholarships
The New Mexico Lottery has raised $670.5 million for education in New Mexico. More than 100,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships. More information about Legislative Lottery Scholarships is available on the Legislative Lottery Scholarship page.