Video grabs about Powerball’s $150 million draw are available here Audio grabs about Powerball’s $150 million draw are available here
Australia could welcome its biggest-ever individual lottery winner this week if just one person takes home Powerball’s entire $150 million jackpot on Thursday night.
The $150 million Powerball draw, draw 1462 on Thursday 23 May 2024, is the third-biggest prize ever offered by an Australian lottery game. The jackpot has soared to these heights after there were no division one winners during the past six Powerball draws.
This week’s Powerball draw falls on the 28th anniversary of the game’s first draw – 23 May 1996.
With such a mammoth prize on offer, The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said up to half of Australian adults were expected to have an entry into the draw.
“While Australian lotteries have been operating for more than a century, there have only been five draws that have offered a jackpot of $150 million or more,” he said.
“If just one person takes home this $150 million prize on Thursday night, they’ll make history by becoming the nation’s biggest-ever individual lottery winner.
“In 2019, a Sydney nurse became Australia’s current biggest individual lottery winner when she won more than $107 million. We spoke to her minutes after the winning numbers were drawn – will we be speaking to a new record holder this Thursday night?
“The last time Powerball offered a $150 million prize was in January this year when the peak of sales was at 6.15pm on the day of the draw when 7,455 tickets were sold in a single minute.
“If previous big jackpots are anything to go by, we can expect it to get busier and busier at lottery outlets and online leading up to Thursday night’s draw.
“We encourage customers to not only get in early to purchase their entries but also register their entries to a player card or online account so we can contact them directly after the draw with some incredible news!
“If we have a division one winner on Thursday night, we’ll be wanting to let them know straight after the draw. They may not need to head into work on Friday, or ever again!”
Powerball stocktake
- So far this year, six Powerball division one winning entries have pocketed more than $270 million. There have been three wins each in Queensland and New South Wales.
Winning Powerball entries
- In 2023, more than half (11 of 20) of the Powerball division one winning entries were QuickPicks – where the lottery terminal randomly generates your numbers.
- More than half (11 of 20) of the 2023 Powerball division one winning entries were PowerHit entries – an entry unique to Powerball that guarantees the all-important Powerball number you need to win division one.
Powerball’s “Hot” and “Cold” numbers
- While Powerball is a game of chance, and every number has an equal chance of being drawn, there are some numbers we have seen drawn out of the barrel more often than others.
- From the main barrel, where seven winning numbers are drawn from 35, the most frequently drawn numbers are 17, 7, 3 and 9, while the least frequently drawn are 33, 15, 31 and 26.
- From the separate Powerball barrel, where a single Powerball number is drawn from 20, the most frequently drawn Powerball numbers are 2 and 4, while the least frequently drawn Powerball numbers are 14 and 16.
Tickets can be purchased at any licenced lottery outlet, online from thelott.com or via The Lott mobile app.
The official home of Australia’s lotteries, The Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.
In 2023, more than 122.7 million wins took home more than $3.76 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Lotto, Weekday Windfall, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno (SA), Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.
Last financial year, Australia’s official lotteries contributed more than $1.6 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.
