10/20/2005 - 9:15 AM

Three Louisiana Powerball Ticket Holders Win Match 5 Bonus Prize

Tickets purchased in Shreveport, Gretna and Gray correctly matched the five white ball numbers drawn and each won $200,000 plus an additional $653,492 in the first ever Powerball Match 5 Bonus prize pool.

The winning Louisiana tickets matched the white ball numbers, 7-21-43-44-49. A ticket sold in Oregon also matched the red Powerball number 29 and won the $340 million Powerball jackpot.

Forty-six other ticket purchasers nationwide also won $200,000 and an additional $653,492 from the $32 million Match 5 Bonus prize pool during Wednesday's draw by correctly matching the white ball numbers.

Added to Powerball in 2002, the Match 5 Bonus prize feature pays a bonus to players who match the five white ball numbers, but do not correctly match the red Powerball number, when a new record Powerball jackpot is established.

Whenever a previous Powerball jackpot record has been surpassed, this new "share the winnings" feature limits jackpot growth to no more than $25 million per drawing. All additional funds from sales that would have gone into the Powerball jackpot prize go to the Match 5 Bonus prize pool, which is divided equally among Match 5 Bonus winners when the jackpot is won.

Since the $340 million jackpot surpassed the previous jackpot record of $314.9 million, Powerball's unique Match 5 Bonus feature kicked in for Wednesday s draw.

Meanwhile, there also were five Powerball tickets purchased in Louisiana that won $10,000 each in Wednesday's draw and there were 126,199 Louisiana Powerball players who won prizes ranging from $100 to $3.