Oklahoma tickets eligible for Powerball lottery game

Saturday, January 14th 2006, 6:33 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Tickets to the multistate Powerball lottery game sold briskly in Oklahoma during the first few days state residents had an opportunity to participate in the game with multimillion dollar jackpots.

Powerball tickets went on sale Thursday in Oklahoma, and first-day sales totaled $412,697. An additional $206,000 had been sold between midnight and 2 p.m. Friday, lottery officials said.

A jackpot drawing was set for 9:59 p.m. Saturday night at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City, the site of the International Finals Rodeo. The drawing, which is normally held in Des Moines, was scheduled in Oklahoma City to celebrate the state's entry into the Powerball game.

Saturday's drawing is the first for which tickets sold in Oklahoma are eligible to win.

The jackpot is estimated at $76 million.

Oklahoma joined 28 other states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands in offering Powerball, a game that requires players to pick five numbers at random from 1 to 55 and one ``Powerball'' number from 1 to 42.

Prizes range from $3 up to the grand prize, which is guaranteed to be at least $15 million each week. The odds of winning a prize are 1 in 36.61, according to Powerball officials.

To win the grand prize, players must match all five numbers plus the Powerball number. The odds of winning the grand prize is 1 in 146,107,962, according to Powerball officials.

The largest grand prize ever awarded by Powerball was $340 million, won by a family in Salem, Ore., in November.

Oklahoma began its voter-approved lottery in October with a scratch-off game and began its ``Pick 3'' online game in November, but jackpots in these games are dwarfed by those offered in Powerball. The biggest non-Powerball jackpot in an Oklahoma lottery game is $25,000.