Four Iowans came within one number of winning the nearly 950 million dollar Powerball jackpot in Saturday’s drawing. One ticket purchased in Sioux City had the first five numbers but missed the Powerball number, giving the ticker holder a one million dollar prize. The others had the Powerball number, but missed one of the five other numbers. The estimate for Wednesday’s drawing is now one-point-three BILLION dollars, and you can could take an immediate 806 million cash payout if you won. Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says the big jackpot has raised several new issues for the organization.

“There are signs that have two jackpots on them — one side is Powerball and the other side is Mega Millions — those signs are only designed for millions of dollars, we don’t have billion dollar capability on those signs,” according to Neubauer. Neubauer says those signs will display 999 million dollars as the estimated jackpot amount. “I guess that’s a nice complication to have,” according to Neubauer.

The big jackpot is also creating a problem with the message that is printed at the bottom of all lotto tickets in Iowa. That message is also only programmed to display amounts in the millions of dollars. Neubauer says the message will says the jackpot is 13-hundred (1,300) million dollars. “It’s funny the things that we are talking about today, because we’re definitely into uncharted territory here,” Neubauer says. Powerball fever has led to two new sales records for the Iowa Lottery.

Total lottery sales in Iowa for the week that ended Saturday were 19-nad-a-half million dollars. That is well above the lottery’s previous weekly sales record of 13-point-two million dollars set in February 2006. Powerball sales in Iowa for the week totaled 12-point-seven million dollars, which also is a record. The previous weekly record for Powerball sales in Iowa was nine-point-four million dollars in August 2001.

The winning numbers in Saturday’s Powerball jackpot drawing were: 16-19-32-34-57 and the Powerball number was 13.

(Radio Iowa)