WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- A $5 discrepancy and a late-arriving security officer delayed the midweek Powerball drawing by 42 minutes.
Wednesday night's drawing, which was videotaped, was delayed past the satellite time reserved by the Multi-State Lottery Association, which operated the game, so it was not televised on more than 90 television stations that carry the drawing. Multi-State Lottery is based in Iowa.
Powerball tickets are sold in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and 25 other states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Once Iowa's information was confirmed, the drawing was held at 11:41 p.m. The numbers drawn Wednesday were: 27, 29, 31, 42, 46, with a Powerball of 33.
There were no jackpot winners, but there were 14 tickets that matched five of the white numbers, for a take of $100,000 each. Five of those were purchased in Pennsylvania, according to the Multi-State Lottery.
With no big winner, the Powerball jackpot for Saturday is expected to top $215 million, or $121.9 million if you choose the cash option.
Joe Hdrlicka, vice president of marketing for the Iowa Lottery, said there was a $5 discrepancy in an independent system and an internal system of the number of Powerball tickets sold for the midweek drawing.
That alone would not delay the drawing, Hrdlicka said Thursday.
But when such a discrepancy is found, an internal alert is issued, which causes a lock-down at both the drawing location and an independent location. Security officers are required to be at both spots monitoring communications and ensuring proper protocols are followed while lottery officials determine where the discrepancy occurred, Hrdlicka said.
A delay in a security officer arriving at the independent location caused the delay in Wednesday night's drawing, he said.
Hrdlicka said the Powerball board is discussing changes to reduce the chance of such problems in the future.
"If there is any hint of a situation where we have to go into lockdown, maybe we need to go into our internal alert status earlier and notify security so we minimize delays," he said.
Chuck Strutt, associate director of the Multi-State Lottery, said security takes top priority on drawing nights.
"Nobody likes to delay a drawing for a big jackpot like this, but security never takes a back seat to public relations," Strutt said in a statement released yesterday.
Strutt said such security issues where numbers can't be confirmed by the scheduled drawing time have occurred about a dozen times in the Powerball's 13-year history.
"I think the reason it's getting so much attention this time is because it was such a huge jackpot, and a lot of people were paying attention," he said. "It doesn't happen often, but it has happened, unfortunately."
