It’s not the biggest lottery jackpot on record. But estimates for Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot have reached $450 million, according to Maine State Lottery.
After lottery officials announced a $400 million prize Monday, Powerball ticket sales surged. That gave lottery officials enough reason to boost jackpot estimates another $50 million. The jackpot is the sixth-largest ever in North America.
According to MoneyTips.com, the five biggest lottery winners are:
- $656 Million – Three winning tickets were cashed on the March 30, 2012 Mega Millions drawing, which, as of this writing, is the largest jackpot total as well as the largest cash payout ($471 million). The only winning ticket holders to be identified were Merle and Patricia Butler of the small Southern Illinois town of Red Bud. The other winners were a group of teachers in Milford Mill, Maryland, and a single anonymous winner in Ottawa, Kansas.
- $648 Million – The second largest jackpot was also a Mega Millions drawing. The December 17, 2013, drawing brought two winning ticket holders a total cash value of $347.6 million. Steve Tran, a delivery truck driver in northern California, claimed half of the prize while Ira Curry of Stone Mountain, Georgia claimed the other half.
- $590.5 Million – The highest Powerball payout in history went to a single winner: Gloria Mackenzie, who was 84 years old at the time of the drawing on May 18, 2013. The Florida woman received the highest single amount of cash collected by a single winner ($370.9 million). This particular draw also featured the unluckiest lottery player of all time: the gracious gentleman who let Mackenzie go ahead of him in line to purchase a ticket.
- $587.5 Million – The Powerball drawing on November 28, 2012, produced two winning tickets for an overall cash payout of $384.7 million, the all-time record in cash payouts on a single drawing for Powerball. The prize was split between Matthew Good of the Phoenix, Arizona, suburb of Fountain Hills, and Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearborn, Missouri. Good and his wife attempted to remain anonymous, but public records laws forced the disclosure of his name.
- $564 million – The February 2015 Powerball drawing produced three winners and a cash value of $381 million. The first winner to claim was Marie Holmes, a 26-year old single mother of four from Shallotte, North Carolina. A second winner in Puerto Rico has decided to remain anonymous, and a third winning ticket was sold at the Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, Texas, near the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The proceeds from the Texas ticket have been placed in a trust under the name TL Management Trust.
No one has won the Powerball jackpot since Nov. 4.
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