Texas Lottery Confirms ‘Rare Incident’ in Monday’s Powerball

The year 2024 has seen some rare occurrences across Texas. We've seen the Northern Lights in Carthage, Canton, and Terrell. There have been sightings of unique wildlife in our coastal marshes and bays near Galveston Island and along the Bolivar Peninsula.  And we've seen the Dallas Cowboys go from contenders to pretenders before Thanksgiving. Hey, they lost to the Saints for Pete's Sake.

Okay if we're being factual the Cowboys folding like cheap patio furniture before Thanksgiving happens a lot more regularly than the Northern Lights and the spotting of a pink dolphin but the fact is those things are rare in Texas. Something else that rarely happens in Texas happened in Monday's Powerball Lottery game. 

Here is the drawing for the Powerball Game on Monday, November 4, 2024.

The top prize in Monday's Powerball game was an estimated annuitized jackpot of $65 million. The cash payout or lump sum in last night's game was estimated to be $30.7 million. Powerball game officials have confirmed that no tickets sold across the game's footprint matched the numbers needed to claim the jackpot prize.

There was a Match 5 Million winner in Monday's game. That big-money winner was sold in California. As far as Texas winners go, it was not a lucrative night for Powerball players in The Lone Star State. The largest single prize won in Texas was $1,000.

Texas Lottery Reveals Rare Occurrence in Powerball Drawing

There were 10 tickets that matched 4 of 5 on the "white balls" and another 49 tickets that matched 3 of 5 "white balls" and the Powerball. Those tickets each earned a prize of $100. The Texas Lottery has also confirmed that five more tickets matched the "4 of 5" scenario and another 23 tickets matched the "3 of 5" scenario but those tickets will be paid a prize of $1,000. How can that be?

It all has to do with the Power Play feature of the game. A player can choose that option for an extra dollar. On Monday night, the Power Play was the way to go. The rare incident that happened during Monday's Powerball drawing was the "10x" Power Play. That's right "10 times" your winnings if you opted-in.

I have to admit I have only seen "10x" on the Power Play in Powerball come up one other time. In the history of Powerball and the Power Play option, the "10x" amount has only been chosen 21 times. That's going back more than 20 years.

There are a couple of reasons why you're more likely to see a Power Play of "2x or 3x" when they do the Powerball drawings. The most prevalent reason is that Powerball only brings out the "10x" option when the game's top prize is below $150 million. And since last night the game's jackpot was only $65 million the "10x" option was included and it hit.

By the way, the numbers from Monday's drawing were:

06   18   33   48   53   Powerball 21  Power Play "x10"

The Powerball jackpot will now climb to an estimated $75 million for the annuitized jackpot on Wednesday night. The cash prize or lump sum payment would be $35.4 million should you win and choose that option.

Mega Millions certainly has the sexier prize of the two multi-state lottery games available in Texas. The Mega Millions jackpot is estimated to be $303 million for the annuity or $1412.8 million for the lump sum. The drawing in that game is tonight at 10 pm.

Please remember all lottery games involve risk. There is a significant risk that you will lose any and all money that you put into the games so do play responsibly. If you have a Gambling Problem, help is available by calling 1-800-GAMBLER