Powerball climbs to massive $60m jackpot

One lucky Aussie could become the year’s biggest lottery winner to date, with the opportunity to finish the financial year as a multi-millionaire in a massive $60m draw.

Powerball’s draw 1413 is set to take place on Thursday June 15, the jackpot prize surging to $60m after the past four draws failed to reap any division one winners.

It’s believed a staggering one in six Aussies will have an entry to this week’s draw.

The Lott spokesman Matt Hart said a woman from Echuca and a man from Swan Valley had been the nation’s biggest lottery winners of the year so far.

“They both won $40m each in separate Powerball draws earlier this year,” he said.

Mr Hart said due to a “steady procession” of division one winners throughout the year, the jackpot hadn’t climbed to a very high sum, “until now”.

“Any division one winners in this week’s Powerball draw would be paid their prize on June 30,” he said.

“That’s surely one way to end the financial year on a high.”

Mr Hart also said the majority of this year’s winners had been “marked entries”.

“Five of the eight Powerball division one winning entries of 2023 … (were) where people have selected the numbers on their ticket,” he said.

The most frequently drawn winning numbers from the main barrel are also reported to have been 17, 7, 9, 2 and 28, while the most frequently drawn Powerball numbers are 3 and 19.

Mr Hart has advised any Aussies keen to participate to get their ticket well in advance as the giant jackpot is expected to attract many participants in-store leading up to the draw’s close at 7.30pm AEST on Thursday.

There have been eight division one winning entries so far this year, three of which were in NSW, two in SA and one in Queensland, Victoria and WA.

Collectively the winners have taken home more than $154m in prize money.