What a difference a single number can make.
How about $202.8 million?
For a lack of a 38 - Saturday night's Powerball - players in Pennsylvania and New Jersey won $200,000 instead.
Not that a couple of hundred grand is anything to sneeze at.
They matched only the first five numbers - 11, 16, 40, 51 and 56. They were sold at a CoGo's convenience store in Pittsburgh and an Aiwa Food Store in Lyndhurst, Bergen County.
Also matching five were tickets - one apiece - sold in Maryland, New York, Kentucky, Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and New Mexico, although the Louisiana ticket won $1 million for also having the Power Play multiplier option.
Nobody matched all the numbers, so Wednesday's annuity jackpot vaulted by more than $40 million to $245 million or about $146 million for the cash.
That seems to be Powerball's biggest cash prize since February 2006, when a group of Nebraska food-packaging workers split $177 million in cash.
Curiously, that annuity was much higher, a Powerball record $365 million. Lower interest rates are probably to blame. The cash raised from ticket sales can't generate jackpots as big as it could even a year ago. A request was made, though the Pennsylvania Lottery, for an explanation.
The biggest cash jackpot ever, $240 million, was won last January in Mega Millions and was split by tickets bought in Idaho and Washington State.
Mega Millions also rises. The other major multistate lottery also rose, because nobody matched all the numbers drawn Friday night: 13, 31, 49, 52 and 56, with a Mega Ball of 41.
Tuesday's jackpot will be $78 million, or $54.9 million for the cash.
New Jersey sold one of seven tickets that matched the first five numbers, but not the Mega Ball. It was also sold in Lyndhurst, at the Prontis Liquor & Deli.
Michigan sold two, while New York, Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington each sold one. If any also had the Megaplier multiplier option, the prize would be $1 million. Otherwise, the ticket's worth $250,000.
Mega Millions does not make Megaplier results readily available.
For more on the lotteries, go to www.powerball.com, www.megamillions.com or www.philly.com/philly/news/lottery.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.
