Powerball ticket worth $50K sold in N.J. smoke shop

A Powerball ticket worth $50,000 was bought in Essex County for Wednesday’s lottery drawing.

The lucky winner purchased the third-prize ticket at Village Smoke Shop on Village Plaza in South Orange, lottery officials said. It matched four numbers plus the Powerball.

Wednesday’s winning numbers were: 2, 26, 33, 55 and 57. The Powerball was 22, with a Power Play of 2X.

Someone who bought a ticket at a Walmart in the Dayton area in Ohio hit the $139 million jackpot. The cash option is worth $66.5 million.

A second-prize, $1 million ticket was bought in Pennsylvania. Two second-prize tickets worth $397,355 each were sold in California. California lottery prizes vary depending on ticket sales and the number of winners. They differ from the fixed second prizes offered in other participating states.

The three second-prize tickets matched five numbers but not the Powerball.

In addition, no one won the secondary, $10 million Double Play drawing. Those winning numbers were: 19, 22, 38, 55 and 61. The Double Play number drawn was 23.

The jackpot for Saturday’s drawing rolls back to an estimated $20 million with a cash option of $9.5 million.

The odds of hitting the Powerball jackpot are 292,201,388 to 1. A player who buys a $2 ticket has about a 1 in 11,688,053 chance to match five numbers and win at least $1 million, while the odds are 913,129 to 1 to win a third prize of at least $50,000.

Powerball drawings are held each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is worth an estimated $162 million with a cash option of $74.5 million.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.