There’s A New Tampa Millionaire As The Powerball Jackpot Grows To 1 Billion

I've said before, when the jackpot gets up to a billion dollars, that's when things get interesting. And here it is. The Wednesday, July 19th Powerball now has an estimated jackpot of 1 billion dollars with the cash value of 516.8 million. The jackpot is climbing but we do have a new Tampa millionaire who got very close to winning it all.

According to the WFLA, someone bought a match 5 winning ticket at the Food Mart at 5247 South MacDill Avenue in Tampa. They got the 5 numbers right, but missed the Powerball. I think I know that Food Mart, just a few blocks west of Ballast Point Park.

There were also Match 5 winners in Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, and Pennsylvania. 3 other big winners checked the Power Play box and won 2 million. They were in Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas.

Wednesday night's jackpot will be the third biggest Powerball jackpot ever. Can it be done here? Sure, back in 2016 the second highest Powerball jackpot ever, 1.586 billion, was won by someone from Melbourne Beach, Florida. They has to share it with 2 others. The biggest jackpot ever was $2.04 Billion on November 7th of last year.

Good luck everyone.

It's summertime in Southwest Florida, and it'd certainly be nice to catch a big win before hurricane season. Everyone talks 'hurricane prep' this time of year, but you know what's needed? Money to buy all the hurricane prep. Everything costs more than it did last year. Well, most everything. Florida Lottery scratch off tickets are still priced the same. But some of these tickets are no bargain. Did you know that some of the tickets behind the counter have no chance of hitting big?

The Florida Lottery keeps very close tabs on their scratch off tickets. Way more than we could ever hope to do. But one thing they do for us, is publish their information. But it is a lot of information, so I'll break it down for you.

When you go the counter or the machine in Fort Myers, Naples, or wherever, you really have no idea what you're doing. You pick one that you think "feels lucky" and then give them your money. A $5 ticket where you could win $500,000? Sounds nice - but it's not going to happen if you get the wrong ticket. It'd really be nice if this information was posted when you go to buy tickets, but if they did that no one would buy the tickets where you couldn't win big. So I'll do it for you.

Some of these still have some bigger prizes available, but all the big prize winners are gone. We'll also touch on some of the newer games that have all their big top prizes left. So let's get started. This list is current as of July 4th, 2023.

It's a $5 ticket that came out in February of 2022. This game ends next month and all of the $500,000 and all the $10,000 prizes are gone. Best you could do on this one is a $1,000 winner.

A $2 ticket, but all of the $50,000 winners are gone. Like the last one, this ticket also ends on August 4th. There's some $2,000 winners left, but all 12 of the $50,000 winners have been claimed.

There were 8 of the $100,000 winning cards but they've all been claimed. Best you could do on this card is $2,500.

How much would it hurt dropping $30 on a card when you have no chance of hitting the $15 million dollar jackpot? That's because 4 people already did just that and now they're gone. Of the 24 $1 million dollar prizes, 2 of those are left. Heck, only 2 of the $100,000 tickets are still out there.

It's a $5 card with the chance to win a million. But you won't. All the million dollar cards are gone. You could still pick up $10,000 or one of the other prizes, but if you have dreams of buying a boat you may wanna pass on this one.

Nope. All the $5 million dollar prizes are gone. 3 of the $1 million dollar prizes are yet to be claimed. So if you like the crossword tickets, this one still has some winners left.

Tickets that have ALL of their big winners left. That's what I want. The Florida Lottery dropped some new games yesterday, so those all have the big winners left. Plus there's another one that came out back in February that still hasn't hit. We'll cover that one, too.

This one just came out on July 3rd. It's a $10 ticket and 4 people can win that grand prize. Do you still keep going to your job if you win this? Probably not.

The $5 version of this series that just came out. I could get by on $150K a year. It looks like a few of the $500 prizes have been claimed but the rest are out there.

And now the $2 version of the series. Like the others, this card just came out on July 3rd. All 8 of the grand prizes are available.

The dollar ticket version. You're not going to retire on this money, but it'd certainly make a difference. There's 4 top winners.

This is an odd $3 ticket that came out back in May. It still has most of the big winners left. 8/8 $100,000 winners, 12/16 $25,000 winners, and 22/24 $10,000 winners all yet to be claimed.

One million dollars a year for life. We've talked about this one before as it came out in February. It's a $50 ticket with a massive grand prize. There's 2 of those tickets and both are still out there. There's 234 of the one million dollar prizes and only 43 of those have been claimed.

The 500X the cash has certainly made a lot of headlines around here. It's a $50 ticket that came out in February of 2022. It advertises 2 - $25 million dollar prizes. George Demetriades of Bonita Springs got one of the $25 million dollar cards back in May of 2022, but the other one is still out there. Someone in Naples won a million off this card about 6 weeks ago. There's still 13 one million dollar winners left.

These stats are all current as of 7/4/2023. If you don't see your favorite ticket, here's the link to look it up. Hope this helps. Good luck to all. I usually send out an email when I make a new list, if you want that, sign up below.