20 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 HELLO, 2024!!! If Powerball® could voice its own entry into the New Year, it would surely include a series of exclamation points, especially considering its buzzworthy start to 2024. For the fifth consecutive year, Powerball joined households across America on ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest’ to present the finale of the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® promotion. Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, Pamela Bradshaw, a Powerball player from North Carolina, became the promotion’s $1 million winner in a special drawing broadcast live on ABC. After her winning number was drawn, Bradshaw jumped into the air then collapsed on the floor before embracing Seacrest and her daughter, Joanna Hinson, who joined her on stage. The broadcast captured the emotional, unscripted reaction to a life-changing win. It’s the unique Powerball-based content that the Powerball Product Group has worked to showcase and share with national audiences, as it expands the brand’s reach and relevancy as an entertainment force. According to The Nielsen Company, the New Year’s Eve program attracted more than 22 million total viewers at midnight, with the show’s late-night edition becoming the highest-rated entertainment special on any network in two years. In addition to making national headlines, the promotion’s storyline trickled down to the state level, and nowhere has felt the local impact more than North Carolina, where players have won the national promotion the past two years. “The great thing about lotteries and games like Powerball is how they create amazing events like a $1 million drawing in Times Square on New Year’s Eve,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the North Carolina Education Lottery. “Seeing a North Carolina player become the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year two years in a row certainly provided a big boost to the fun of Powerball and playing the lottery. This year’s winner not only got her first plane ride and first chance to see the Statue of Liberty but the money to afford her first home. It’s thrilling to be part of such a life-altering event.” Less than 23 hours after Bradshaw was declared the Powerball First Millionaire of 2024, Powerball® captivated the country, again, this time with a New Year’s Day drawing for an $842.4 million jackpot. The jackpot first gained traction and media attention in mid-December after it crossed half a billion dollars, and the spotlight only intensified over the holidays. The $842.4 million Powerball® jackpot was finally won by a single ticket, sold in Grand Blanc, Michigan, marking the first time in the game’s history that a Powerball jackpot has been won on New Year’s Day. The January 1 Powerball drawing also produced six tickets that won prizes ranging from $1 million to $2 million across six states. The New Year’s Day jackpot was the latest in a wave of gargantuan grand prizes generated by Powerball over the past year. The $842.4 million jackpot ranked as the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and tenth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won. It was immediately preceded by a $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot won on Oct. 11, 2023, and a $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot won on July 19, 2023, with both grand prizes won in California. “Powerball has entered a new era of growth in terms of sales and brand reach,” said Drew Svitko, Powerball Product Group Chair and Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director. “Over the past year, and again in the New Year, Powerball has demonstrated what a tremendous asset it is for the lotteries that it serves. We are ecstatic to start the New Year with a new boost in funding for the deserving causes in our respective lottery jurisdictions.” n MUSLNEWS MULTI -STATE LOTTERY ASSOCIATION Pamela Bradshaw, a North Carolina player, won the $1 million prize shortly after midnight on Jan. 1. All five finalists were interviewed live on-air by Ryan Seacrest in Times Square before the $1 million drawing. The ticket that won the $842.4 million Powerball jackpot on New Year's Day was sold at the Food Castle of Grand Blanc in Grand Blanc, MI. Courtesy: Michigan Lottery Pamela Bradshaw with her daughter, Joanna Hinson, after becoming the Powerball First Millionaire of 2024. (L-R): NC finalist Pamela Bradshaw, ID finalist Lora-Lee Casady, Ryan Seacrest, NY finalist Maire Kelly Joyce, GA finalist Tracy Lacobie-Goeddel, and Nicole Mineau, RI Lottery proxy for finalist Finton Wallace. Powerball’s First 24 Hours of 2024 From the climactic finale of a national promotion on ABC to an $842.4 million jackpot won in Michigan, Powerball delivered new thrills and life-changing wins in the first 24 hours of 2024.
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