Two Powerball Winners Chosen
UPDATE | Nov. 29, 2012 4:44 P.M. PST: Missouri Lottery Officials have verified one of the two tickets that matched all six winning numbers to win the record $579.9 million jackpot. That verified ticket holder will split the jackpot with a currently nameless ticket holder in Arizona.
UPDATE | Nov. 29, 2012 3:03 P.M. PST: The California Lottery Commission announced that the popular game Powerball is coming to California. The committee announced their decision Thursday after a unanimous vote. Powerball tickets will start being sold in California on April 8, 2013.
ORGINAL STORY | Nov. 29, 2012 12:00 P.M. PST: Powerball officials confirmed Thursday morning that two winning tickets sold in Arizona and Missouri matched all six numbers to win the record $579.9 million jackpot.
The winning numbers were: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.
One lottery official said late Wednesday the jackpot had increased to $579.9 million by the drawing, making a $379.8 million cash option.
Americans across the country have been on a ticket-buying spree over the past few days, with the huge money amount attracting people who rarely, if at all, participate in the lottery to buy a chance at the second-largest payout in U.S. history.
Ticktes were being sold at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide — which is about six times the volume from a week ago. This rapid sale rate pushed the jackpot even higher before the Wednesday night drawing, said Chuck Strutt, the executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.
The jackpot has already passed by 16 consecutive times with no winner, but Powerball officials predicted a 75 percent chance that the winning combination would be pulled during this past drawing.
Some experts predicted that if one ticket hit the right numbers then chances were high that multiple ones would as well. A similar event happened in the Mega Millions drawing in March, when three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot-- the largest lottery payout of all time.
