Why was the Powerball drawing delayed?

[ad_1]

Powerball has issued a statement explaining why Saturday night’s $1.3 billion jackpot drawing has had to be delayed.

WASHINGTON — Saturday night’s Powerball drawing for a $1.3 billion jackpot has been delayed due to technical difficulties.

When the drawing was supposed to take place at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, the Powerball host for Saturday night announced a “technical problem” had made it so they couldn’t hold the drawing at that time.

Powerball announced a few minutes later that the issue was that one participating state lottery needs more time to complete required pre-draw procedures. Powerball did not identify the state.

This isn’t the first time a highly anticipated Powerball drawing has had to be delayed for this reason. Back in 2022, a drawing for the largest-ever jackpot was delayed nearly 10 hours because the Minnesota Lottery had issues processing sales, the lottery game said at the time.

“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn. This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process,” the lottery said Saturday night.

Once the pre-draw procedures are complete, a drawing supervised by lottery security and an independent auditing firm will be held.

The winning numbers and video of that delayed drawing will be posted on the Powerball website.

When will Powerball be drawn?

As of late Saturday night, the lottery didn’t say when the delayed drawing for the $1.3 billion jackpot will happen.

After a delay in November 2022, the drawing wasn’t held until around 9 a.m. Eastern the following morning. However, there was another drawing in October 2022 that was delayed but only for about an hour.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

What are the odds of winning the Powerball?

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are one in 292.2 million.

Over the past few years, huge lottery jackpots have become more common as lottery officials have changed the rules and ticket prices to boost top prizes.

Powerball’s biggest change came in 2021 when officials decided to add a Monday drawing to its weekly lineup of Wednesday and Saturday evening drawings. At the time of the announcement, Powerball proclaimed the addition of the Monday drawing would lead to “larger, faster-growing jackpots.”