Aussies chase Thursday’s $80 million Powerball jackpot

Australian lottery history could be made this week if one player takes home the entire $80 million Powerball jackpot on offer for this Thursday’s draw!

After seven weeks of jackpotting, Powerball has soared to a mind-blowing $80 million. It’s the second biggest jackpot Powerball has offered in the game’s 23-year history.

Ahead of the draw, the Lott can reveal the winning entry types that scored Powerball division one prizes 2018. Last year, 14 division one winning entries in the Lott’s jurisdictions took home $344 million in Powerball prize money.

•  Of these entries, almost two-thirds were QuickPick entries, where the numbers were randomly generated by the lottery terminal. The remaining entries were marked entries, where the ticketholders had chosen the numbers themselves.
• Almost one-in-four of the winning entries were PowerHIT entries, a special type of entry that guarantees the all-important Powerball number needed to win division one.

While Powerball is a random game of chance and every number has an equal chance of being drawn, the Lott has crunched the numbers to reveal the game’s most frequently drawn numbers during the past eight months.

For the main barrel, where seven winning numbers are drawn from 35, the ‘hot’ number is 32, having been drawn 13 times. (Table 1)

Table 1: ‘Hot’ winning numbers from past Powerball draws

There are several numbers that have only been drawn four times during the same period (Table 2), the lowest of any number from the main barrel.

Table 2: ‘Cold’ winning numbers from past Powerball draws

For the separate Powerball barrel, where a single Powerball number between one and 20 is drawn, there are three numbers that have been drawn more than any other (Table 3).

Table 3: ‘Hot’ Powerball numbers

At the same time, there are several Powerball numbers that never been drawn during the past eight months (Table 4).

Table 4: ‘Cold’ Powerball numbers

With an enticing $80 million prize on offer, the Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said he expected up to one-in-three Australian adults to have an entry in this Thursday’s draw.

He said history could also be made on Thursday night if one entry took home the entire $80 million Powerball prize.

“The current Australian record for the biggest division one win by a single entry was a massive $70 million Powerball prize won by a Hervey Bay couple in 2016.

“Can you imagine how your life might change in 2019 if your bank account ballooned by an $80 million Powerball prize? Would you pursue a long-held passion to explore the beautiful corners of the world, or would you set up home on a tropical island, or both?

“With a multi-million dollar Powerball prize of this scale, it’s fair to say you could well and truly play by your own rules.

January has a track record of big Powerball jackpot wins. In 2017, a private syndicate of 21 Queensland Government workers shared a $55 million Powerball prize, while last year a mystery Melbourne winner also snared $55 million.

Mr Hart said his best advice for anyone keen for a chance to win Powerball’s $80 million prize was to grab an entry early.

“Leading up to the draw close on Thursday evening, we’re going to be frenetic in store and online as Aussies get their hands on a ticket,” he said.

Powerball draw 1182 closes at 7:30pm AEST on Thursday 10 January 2019.

Tickets can be purchased at any licensed lottery outlet, online from thelott.com or via the Lott mobile app.

The Lott’s division one winning tally across all Australian lottery games has now reached 199 so far this financial year.

The sign of Australia’s Official Lotteries, the Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2018, 74 million winners took home a total of $2.7 billion in prize money from their favourite games which include Saturday Lotto, Monday and Wednesday Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno and Instant Scratch-Its.