Tonight’s Powerball jackpot is already projected to be the largest in the 21-year history of the game at 600-million-dollars. Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says they urge you to play responsibly.

“We always remind people to play with your head, not over your head, We don’t want to see people playing beyond their means at a time like this or any time,” Neubauer says. “And the good news is that even when the Powerball jackpot was at its record amount back in November — it was 587-million dollars then — but event at that time, the average purchase that we saw being made here in Iowa was still just six dollars. That’s just three plays.”

That record jackpot was split between two tickets in Arizona an Missouri. Neubauer says take some precautions if you go in with someone else to buy tickets.

“When the jackpot reaches this amount, we see a lots of people starting to play in pools, whether it’s at the office or maybe a bunch of neighbors are getting together or maybe you and your family are all buying tickets together. On the lottery website at www.iowaottery.com, we keep some reminders on there as a permanent feature of the page of what to do when you are playing in a group,” Neubauer says.

She says taking the steps ahead of time could prevent legal hassles later. “Keep careful track of everyone who has put money into the pool. Maybe give copies of the pool tickets to everyone who is in the group beforehand. That way you just help eliminate questions later,” according to Neubauer.

The next Powerball drawing is at 9:59 tonight. In Iowa, you can buy a ticket for the drawing up until 8:59 p.m.

The Powerball jackpot has pushed to an estimated $550-million after no winning tickets were sold for Wednesday’s drawing. Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says a number that big grabs everyone’s attention.

“When the jackpot gets to this level, it just becomes that thing that everybody’s talking about. Everybody wants a shot at it, so now we see not only regular players buying tickets, but occasional players and first-time players jumping in,” Neubauer says.

A record Powerball jackpot of $587-million was won in November. Neubauer says the switch from a $1 to a $2 ticket for Powerball has helped create bigger jackpots more often. “It’s all designed to keep delivering those big jackpots, but also the chance to win other sizable prizes as well,” according to Neubauer.

“So, we’re always looking at ways to maybe tweak the game and change the game to make it better, because over time people don’t want the same old thing, they want the opportunity to try for something that is maybe a little different or new, so we’re always looking at that to see what we can do.”

Another thing that’s helped push the jackpots up is the addition of California — the country’s most populated state — to the game. Neubauer says there’s a mistaken view that a bigger state has better odds of having the winning numbers.

“I’ve heard some people saying ‘Oh well now that that California is in we don’t stand a chance, nobody else is ever going to win,’ but in fact the odds in Powerball haven’t change. The odds of winning the jackpot are still the same now that were before California is in,” Neubauer says.

“And it goes back to that concept of why Powerball started in the first place. With with more states playing the game, the jackpot grows more quickly, and gets bigger faster. And that’s ultimately what people want from Powerball.” Not only is the Powerball jackpot growing, the Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated $190-million dollars for tonight’s drawing a 10 o’clock.

Iowa is one of the state’s that sells both games and Neubauer says the results are showing they aren’t competing against each other.

She says the old saying that “a rising tide floats all boats” is what they are seeing with the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots.

If you beat all the odds and picked the winning numbers for both games, you’d win and estimated combined jackpot of just over $746-million. Neubauer cautions that you should be reasonable.

“It just takes one ticket to win, you don’t have to buy two, five, 10, you just have to buy one to get in on the fun. Don’t count on winning, just do it for fun,” she advises. Neubauer says the fun is dreaming what you might do with the money if you do win. The Mega Millions drawing is tonight.

The next Powerball drawing is 9:59 p.m. on Saturday. In Iowa, you can buy a ticket for Saturday’s drawing up until 8:59 p.m. Saturday.

Michael Lally

A Mahaska County man cashed in a $2-million Powerball ticket at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines Monday. Thirty-eight-year-old Michael Lally of Barnes City said he bought five easy-pick tickets for Saturday’s drawing, and then didn’t think anything of it until he started the work week.

“I heard on the radio this morning while I was plowing snow that somebody else had won the big one, but there was a winning ticket from Oskaloosa,” Lally said. “I thought, well maybe it was me, but I thought it can’t be.” Lally stopped by a store to check his tickets and heard the “Woo hoo” sound the lottery machine makes when there’s a winner.

The clerk held the ticket up and Lally said “I just started shaking, I couldn’t believe it.” Lally was one number away from winning the $383-million jackpot — missing on the Powerball. But he doesn’t see it as losing out on $381-million.

“I look at it as I won two million…it still hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can take of things now the way I have always been trying to and not feel the pressure, as far as trying to pay the bills, you know everybody has problems,” Lally said.

He bought the winning ticket at a Kum & Go at 1201 N. Market St in Oskaloosa. Lally is raising a 16-year-old son who is a junior in high school. “His college is now paid for, I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” according to Lally. “Obviously I’m going to get a new vehicle, pay some bills, and the rest will be invested.”

Michael Lally will take home $1.4 million dollars after taxes.

It was a busy day for Lally who called his boss and told him he had to bring in the winning ticket. News traveled fast that he had a big winner.

“It didn’t take very long, let’s just say,” Lally said. And he apologized to everybody who had been calling and texting him and said he couldn’t return their calls because he was driving.

“But thank-you to everybody that’s been calling and texting and all.”

Lally takes home $1.4-million after state and federal taxes. He brought brother, Jerad Lally of Des Moines, and his boss, Brian Kitzman of Gibson, with him to cash in the ticket. He doesn’t plan to give up his job now that he is a millionaire.

“No that was the first question his wife asked me, –if I was gonna quit — and then the second one was ‘are you going to buy the business,’ and I said ‘no’ to both,” Lally said.

The Iowa Lottery said Lally is the first $2-million dollar winner in the state since the format was changed in the Powerball game, and he was the only such winner in Saturday’s drawing.

Lottery officials say one jackpot winning ticket was sold in New Jersey.

A ticket with a big prize — but not the jackpot — was sold in Iowa for the $338.3-million Powerball drawing Saturday. The big jackpot winner is not from Iowa — unless it was an Iowan who bought a ticket in New Jersey — as that’s where Powerball officials say one winning ticket for Saturday’s drawing was purchased.

One ticket sold at a convenience store in Oskaloosa came very close to winning the big prize. That ticket matched the first five numbers in the drawing, but missed the Powerball.

The person who bought the ticket also bought the Power Play option, which makes that ticket worth two-million dollars. A spokesperson at the Kum and Go store where the ticket was purchased in Oskaloosa says they haven’t heard from anyone yet who may be the winner.

This large inflatable Powerball is a prommotional item used at Iowa Lottery headquarters.

Besides whatever Iowans are buying online on this Cyber Monday, plenty of Powerball tickets are being snapped up at retailers statewide.

There was no jackpot winner from this past Saturday night’s drawing and there hasn’t been a winner since early October, so Iowa Lottery officials expect the jackpot to leap into record territory for Wednesday night’s drawing.

Projections show the grand prize hitting $425-million, the Powerball’s largest-ever jackpot.

Iowa Lottery CEO. Terry Rich says that buries the previous record of $365-million which was won in February of 2006 by a group of workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant.

Rich says Powerball ticket sales will be incredibly brisk. “We actually find that instead of the diehard folks who really love Powerball and play it every week, we find a lot of occasional players jumping in at this point,” he says. “Just in one day, we’ll probably sell over a million, a million-and-a-half dollars worth of tickets this week.”

Iowa Lottery CEO, Terry Rich.

Rich says if there’s no big winner on Wednesday night and we go a few more weeks along this path, it’s possible to see the prize reach and exceed a billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a “B.”

“Statisticians tell us that about a third of the numbers will be played in these drawings and when it’s over the holidays, often not as many people play or they forget about it or they’re out of town,” Rich says.

“Actually, we could go quite a while and we could get up above a billion dollars. The game is designed to have, every 10 or 15 years, to have just a mega-jackpot hit.” He says the odds are, there’s a 90-to-95-percent chance that there -will- be a winner this week, either Wednesday or Saturday.

Still, this week’s Powerball prize pales compared to the Mega Millions game, which hit a record of $656-million in March, split between three winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.