Washington Player Wins Powerball’s Fifth-Biggest Jackpot

The numbers for February 6 were 5, 11, 22, 23 and 69, with a Powerball of 7. There were more than 1.7 million prizes paid out altogether, but only one ticket proved to be a perfect match for all the numbers.

It was later revealed that the lucky entry was sold in Washington, giving the state just its second jackpot win since joining Powerball in 2010.

The winner now has 180 days to come forward and claim their prize. They will have to decide whether to take the advertised amount as an annuity, or accept the lump sum alternative. The cash option for Monday’s jackpot was worth $407.2 million.

As well as the jackpot winner, five players matched all five main numbers without the Powerball on Monday to land $1 million. Another ticket holder, from Texas, had added the Power Play option so their payout was doubled to $2 million.

Biggest Powerball Jackpots

The jackpot had previously not been won since November 19, when a player from Kansas pocketed $92 million. A couple of weeks prior to that, a new record was set for the biggest jackpot ever. It went to a Californian who scooped $2.04 billion.

If the jackpot had rolled again on Monday, it would have broken into the all-time top three and moved closer to the $1 billion mark. The grand prize has only gone into ten figures on one other occasion, apart from last November, and that was back in January 2016 when three ticket holders split $1.586 billion.

Big jackpots have become increasingly common in recent years, since a tweak to the game in October 2015 altered the odds of winning. It was at that time that the number of main balls was increased to 69, and the Powerball pool was reduced to 26. In fact, the nine biggest jackpots ever have all come since 2015.

Another change has been the addition of a third weekly draw, on a Monday, allowing more opportunities for players to take part and for the jackpot to grow more quickly.

The jackpot will now reset to $20 million for the next draw. See the winning numbers as soon as they are available and keep checking Powerball.net for news of the Washington winner to find out when they come forward.