Powerball jackpot hit in Maryland, but 2 Valley tickets good for $50K
Jan 21, 2021, 1:23 PM | Updated: Jan 22, 2021, 10:35 am
(Getty Images Photo/Justin Sullivan)
(Getty Images Photo/Justin Sullivan)
PHOENIX – A $731.1 million jackpot ticket for Wednesday night’s drawing was sold on the East Coast, but Arizona players didn’t come out empty-handed.
Two tickets purchased at East Valley convenience stores hit on four out of five numbers and the power ball and are good for $50,000 each, according to a press release.
One was sold at the Circle K at McQueen and Queen Creek roads in Chandler, and the other at the Circle K at Gilbert and Guadalupe roads in Gilbert.
The ticket good for the fifth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history was sold at Coney Market, a convenience store in the struggling coal mining town of Lonaconing, Maryland.
It had been more than four months since anyone won the Powerball, allowing the game’s jackpot to grow so large.
An even larger Mega Millions jackpot — which was increased Friday to$1 billion, which would be the third-largest prize in U.S. lottery history — will be up for grabs Friday night.
It was the first time both lottery jackpots topped $700 million. The biggest prize was a $1.58 billion Powerball jackpot won by three people in 2016.
No one had won either of the jackpots since mid-September, allowing the prizes to grow steadily.
Such a long stretch without a winner is rare but also reflects the incredibly small odds of winning — 1 in 292.2 million for Powerball and 1 in 302.5 million for Mega Millions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
