Winning Powerball ticket sold at Braddock market

Someone is a little richer after a Powerball ticket worth $150,000 was sold at an Allegheny County market, according to lottery officials.

The winning ticket sold at Al’s Market in Braddock matched four of the five numbers drawn Saturday as well as the Powerball number. The Braddock Avenue market gets a $500 bonus for selling the ticket which included the Power Play option and tripled the amount the winner got.

A player has a 1 in 913,129 chance of matching four of five numbers and the Powerball number, according to lottery information.

The ticket holder was the Pennsylvania Lottery’s top winner in Saturday’s game. About 22,000 other players matched fewer numbers and won between $4 and $300, but no one won the top prize, according to payout data.

Wednesday’s Powerball drawing is estimated at $116 million.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Pennsylvania Lottery recorded its second-best sales year — $4.47 billion — in 2019-20 since its inception in the 1970s, according to an annual report. Sales in mid-March 2020 decreased by 25% as about 30% of retailers were ordered to close under statewide virus mitigation efforts. Pennsylvania Lottery profits exceeded $1 billion and a record $2.93 billion was paid out to winners during the fiscal year, according to the report.

Retailers earned more than $257 million in sales and bonus commissions. Sales of scratch-off tickets increased to $3.2 billion from $213.5 million in 2018-19.

Proceeds are directed to programs that benefit older residents. In Allegheny County, that was about $123 million in 2019-20, according to lottery reports. More than $311 million was paid out to county winners.