The Powerball jackpot has rolled to its largest amount in nearly five months, and the game’s Double Play feature produced a pair of $500,000 winners in Prince George’s County on Wednesday night.
No ticket hit the jackpot in the Aug. 20 drawing, so the big prize moves to an estimated annuity value of $700 million for the next drawing on Aug. 23, with an estimated cash option of $316.3 million. But two Powerball players in Landover and Riverdale who added the Double Play option to their Aug. 20 tickets won $500,000 prizes.
Powerball tickets are $2, with drawings held Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights. Powerball Double Play is a separate drawing held 30 minutes after each Powerball drawing. Players can add the Double Play option to their Powerball ticket for an additional $1, making their $3 ticket eligible for both the Powerball drawing and the Double Play drawing.
The two $500,000 Double Play winners were sold at Landover Hills Exxon at 6579 Annapolis Road in Landover; and A-1 Laundromat at 6818 Riverdale Road in Riverdale. Both tickets matched the five white balls in the Double Play drawing, but did not match the Power Ball number. Tickets that match all six numbers in the Double Play drawing win the top prize of $10 million. The winners have 182 days from the Aug. 20 drawing date to claim their prizes at Lottery Headquarters in Baltimore.
Powerball’s largest jackpot so far this year was $526.5 million, which was won in the March 29 drawing. The Powerball jackpot was last hit at $204.5 million on May 31.
Since May 31, the Maryland Lottery has sold more than $24.5 million worth of Powerball tickets, and players have won more than $6.9 million in prizes on those tickets. The prizes include a pair of $1 million wins in Baltimore and Catonsville; two $150,000 wins on tickets sold in Baltimore and Riverdale; a $100,000 prize on a ticket sold in Oxon Hill; and nine $50,000 prizes on tickets sold in Baltimore, Chester, Elkridge, Ellicott City, Gaithersburg, La Plata, Mechanicsville, Silver Spring and Woodlawn.
Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Both the Powerball and Double Play drawings have nine different prize tiers, with Powerball ranging from $4 up to the jackpot and Double Play ranging from $7 up to $10 million.
