March 27, 2008 08:29 ET

Powerball Reaches $36 Million!

POWERBALL--(Marketwire - March 27, 2008) - The Powerball jackpot continues to build. Even though the grand prize was not hit Wednesday evening, 425,884 players across the nation won a total of more than $2.8 million in prizes in America's favorite Game.

Because no one correctly matched all six numbers the jackpot will grow to an estimated $36 million for Saturday night's drawing.

The cash option for the Saturday, March 30th drawing will be an estimated $18.7 million.

The numbers drawn Wednesday were 9, 12, 20, 37, 49 and the Powerball was 17. The Power Play multiplier was 2.

One lucky ticket in Oklahoma (1) correctly matched the 5 white numbers and won $200,000.

Twenty-two tickets matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000. Four additional winners of that prize category also had the Power Play option that multiplied the win 2 times for a total of $20,000!

A total of 87,052 winning Powerball players multiplied their prize by 2 Wednesday. They were able to do that by purchasing the Power Play option for one dollar. With Power Play you multiply any winnings from 2-5 times, except for the jackpot. At the beginning of each drawing a wheel is spun to select that night's multiplier.

Players should carefully check their tickets after every draw. Even if there are no jackpot winners there are always tens of thousands of winners at other prize levels.

Players purchased $17,872,443 in tickets between Sunday and Wednesday night.

The lotteries sold over $2.5 billion in Powerball tickets in fiscal year 2007. That translates into approximately $725 million for worthwhile state projects.

Powerball is now played in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information on Powerball, visit our website at www.powerball.com