Powerball Drawing Leaves Players With Mixed Feelings After Rare Win

(KMDL-FM) When someone uses the word "rare," it can mean something good, like a rare coin. It can mean something great, like a rare steak. It can also be something quite forboding, like a rare disease. But for our purposes, we will keep the use of the word rare on the positive side of the equation because what happened in Wednesday's Powerball drawing, according to both the Louisiana Lottery and Powerball, is, in fact, rare.

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If you're not familiar with the way the Powerball lottery game works, it's really simple to play but quite difficult to win. In order to play, you need to have two dollars. If you really want to play, I suggest you have three dollars, more on that in a second.

Your task in the game of Powerball is this: have the numbers on your ticket match the numbers that are drawn. To procure your numbers, select five numbers between 1 and 69 for the white balls, then select one number between 1 and 26 for the red Powerball.

Now that we understand the game, let's see how the drawing played out. If you watch carefully, you can see the "rare occurrence" happen as host Michelle Lyles is displaying the numbers.

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How Much Was the Powerball Jackpot For Wednesday, January 28, 2026?

Here is the Powerball drawing for Wednesday, January 28, 2026.

Alright, you saw the jackpot was $40.7 million last night. There was no winner. In fact, there were no Match 5 Million winners either. All in all, it was a lackluster Powerball drawing except for one thing that has only happened 25 times since 1997.

That means what happened last night's drawing only happens once a year. Okay, once every 1.2 years if you want to be all "mathy" about things. Did you pick up on Wednesday's Powerball anomaly?

What Were The Winning Powerball Numbers for January 28, 2026?

It has to do with the Power Play option of the Powerball game. Let's look at Wednesday's winning Powerball number for January 28, 2026.

21   35   40   46   68   Powerball 11   Power Play x10

The Power Play multiplier of "times 10" is a rare occurrence in the Powerball game. It's only been picked 25 times since 1997. One of the reasons why the "x10" multiplier is so rare is that it's only available when the Powerball jackpot is $150 million or less.

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Since last night's jackpot was $40.7 million, the "10x" ball was in the mix, and lo and behold, it dropped. That means 1,236 Powerball tickets sold in Louisiana had their Powerball prize multiplied by 10. See, it's worth the extra dollar when you buy your ticket.

That means a ticket that matched just four white balls last night, normally a $100 win, would be a $1,000 winner with the Power Play. One ticket purchaser in Louisiana did just that. Another three tickets matched three white balls and the Powerball, so they earned $1,000 bucks, too.

Why Are Nearly 2,000 Louisiana Powerball Players Kicking Themselves This Morning?

Meanwhile, based on information provided by the Louisiana Lottery, there are 1,779 Powerball players in the state kicking themselves for not adding Power Play to their ticket. Oh well, c'est la vie, right?

There were no jackpot wins in either the Lotto game or the Easy 5 game last night. Those jackpots will climb to $600,000 and $110,000 respectivley for Saturday's drawing. The Mega Millions game will draw for a jackpot prize of $303 million (estimated) on Friday.

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The next opportunity to play and win Powerball will come on Saturday night. Game officials estimate the jackpot prize will be $57 million for the annuity. If you win and want the cash option, your payout will be $25,8 million (estimated).

I know we seem to be encouraging adding Power Play to your ticket, but that's only if you can afford it. All of the lottery's games come with a risk of losing money. If you can't afford to lose, then please don't play. The Louisiana Lottery will tell you that. So will the folks at Powerball. But if you do need help with a gambling problem, no one will judge. Simply dial 1-877-770-STOP (7867). The call is free, the help is free, and the burden lifted from your life and your family's life will be freeing. Good Luck.