TRENTON (June 8, 2017) – The Powerball jackpot is at record-setting levels. After 19 draws, the jackpot is now $435 million, with a cash value of $273.1 million, making it the 8th largest in the game’s history. A New Jersey Lottery ticket brought home a $429.6 million win on May 7, 2016, when the Smith Family of Trenton claimed the prize. Perhaps this will be another stupendous jackpot win for New Jersey.

Powerball is always lucky for New Jersey players. Each draw is an opportunity to win the jackpot prize and also any of the hundreds of thousands of lower-tier prizes. Since this roll began on April 5, there have been two $1 million New Jersey Lottery prizewinners and 18 $50,000 prizewinners. All total, New Jersey players have won more than $7 million during these 19 draws. Here are some winner stories of prior Powerball drawings.

The Feb. 18 Powerball drawing created one new millionaire and four $50,000 prizewinners in New Jersey. Joseph Shafto Jr. of Brick was one of the $50,000 prize claimants. He typically wagers a few dollars playing Mega Millions and Powerball. Shafto bought his $2 single-board Quick Pick Powerball ticket on the Thursday before the drawing. That Saturday, his fiancée and her mother discussed Shafto's hopeful lottery ticket purchase over lunch, with a wink and a smile about his chances of winning. Shafto checked his ticket on Sunday, realized that he had won $50,000 and knew that it was his turn to smile. Shafto plans to use this money to pay off some bills and to provide tuition funds. His lucky retailer is Wine World, 2085 Route 88 in Brick.

“The Lucky Six” were also big winners from the Feb. 18 Powerball drawing. Chris Nocito of Palmyra, Randy Klaiss of So. Harrison, Charles Smith 3rd of Cinnaminson, Bob McNulty of Palmyra, Rick Kukral of Blackwood, and Sherri Smith of Pennsylvania are all coworkers at a restoration company in Moorestown. This group of players has been working together for nearly 15 years. After some discussion around the water cooler, the group decided to get into the Powerball craze and purchased some tickets as a group for the next drawing. Together, the group had purchased 30 game boards for the draw.

To ensure fair play, they all shared a photo of the tickets amongst themselves so they would all know if they had won. While sitting at the office on Monday morning after the drawing, Randy looked at the photo of the tickets on his phone and checked the winning numbers online. The first line of numbers matched four of the white balls and the Red Powerball drawn on Saturday, Feb. 18 winning the $50,000 prize. When his co-workers arrived they couldn't believe their luck!

Three members of the group came to Headquarters to claim their prize. Their excitement and joy was contagious. Congratulations to this group of winners and to their lucky retailer, Quick Food & Tobacco, 1613 Cinnaminson Avenue in Cinnaminson.

For all other Lottery group hopefuls, we encourage you to visit the Lottery website and read the Group Play Guidelines. https://www.njlottery.com/en-us/aboutus/playingresponsibly/office-pools.html

“Congratulations to all of the lottery players who purchased winning tickets and to the retailers that sold them,” said Carole Hedinger, New Jersey Lottery executive director. “I’d like to remind players to purchase their Powerball tickets with a winning attitude and add Power Play to the ticket purchase. Power Play doubles the second prize from one million dollars to two million dollars and multiplies all of the seven lower prize sets available in the game by the number drawn that evening. The jackpot prize is not multiplied.”

View all New Jersey Lottery game winning numbers and drawings for the Pick-3, Pick-4, Jersey Cash 5, Pick-6, CASH4LIFE and 5 Card Cash games on the Lottery website (www.NJLottery.com) or on the official Lottery Facebook Page. Midday and evening draws, with the exception of CASH4LIFE and 5 Card Cash, can be seen on WPIX-TV (PIX11) in New York and WPHL-TV (PHL17) in Philadelphia. Powerball and Mega Millions drawings can be seen on WABC-TV stations.

ABOUT THE LOTTERY

Since its inception in 1970, the New Jersey Lottery (NJLottery.com) has contributed nearly $25 billion to the State in support of education and institutions.