Lottery players from across the country had to wait a little longer to find out if they had a lucky Powerball ticket for the whopping $1.3 billion jackpot after a lengthy delay, but it has been completed.
The winning numbers for Saturday’s draw are 22, 27, 44, 52, and 69: The Powerball number is 9 with a 3X Power Play.
It is not known at this time if there were any max-prize-winning tickets sold in any of the participating 45 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
Powerball released a statement on its website regarding the delay shortly after the usual draw time of 7:59 p.m.
“We have one participating lottery that needs additional time to complete required pre-draw procedures, which have been enacted to protect the security and integrity of the Powerball game.
Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn. This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win.
Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”
Although no one from SoCal has hit the big jackpot in previous drawings, a couple of lucky lotto players did win a significant amount of money last month.
A winning ticket from the March 23 Powerball draw worth $2.4 million that hit five out of the six numbers, excluding the Powerball number, was purchased at a 7-11 in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles County.
Someone from Riverside County won roughly three-quarters of $1 million in the March 22 Mega Millions draw.
The latest SoCal winners come after two major jackpots were won by lottery players from the region last year.
Recently, the Southern California winner of last summer’s $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot was revealed.
The winning ticket was purchased in July 2023 by Yanira Alvarez at the Las Palmitas Mini Market located at 1205 Wall Street in downtown Los Angeles near the Skid Row neighborhood.
Her win ended a 39-draw jackpot drought run for Powerball and was the first of two back-to-back billion-dollar winning tickets sold in Southern California that year.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
