2/22/2006 - 9:59 AM

Two Lucky Louisiana Players Win Match 5 Bonus Prizes

Two Louisiana ticket holders were big winners in Saturday's Louisiana Powerball drawing even though they did not win the $365 million jackpot.

Tickets purchased in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles correctly matched the five white ball numbers drawn and each won $200,000 plus an additional $467,142 from the Powerball Match 5 Bonus prize pool for a total prize of $667,142 each.

The winning Louisiana tickets matched the white ball numbers, 15-17-43-44-48. A single ticket sold in Nebraska also matched the red Powerball number 29 and won the $365 million Powerball jackpot.

Forty other ticket purchasers nationwide also won $200,000 and an additional $467,142 from the $19.6 million Match 5 Bonus prize pool during Saturday's draw.

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 won.

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 $365 million jackpot surpassed the previous jackpot record of $340 million, Powerball's unique Match 5 Bonus feature kicked in for Saturday's draw.

In addition, there were nine Powerball tickets purchased in Louisiana that won $10,000 each in Saturday's draw and 159,043 Louisiana Powerball players who won prizes ranging from $100 to $3.

The state was also a big winner with Powerball sales peaking at over 2,000 a minute in the last hour leading up to the drawing. Louisiana Powerball sales for last week were about $10.3 million. The state will receive 35 percent of those sales, in accordance with the Lottery's statute. The 35 percent is dedicated to the Minimum Foundation Program, which goes to fund public education.