News writer
For the fifth year running, Powerball and Dick Clark Productions have teamed up to award one lucky player with the first $1 million prize of 2024.
Shared in a statement provided by Dick Clark Productions, “We’re thrilled to once again partner with POWERBALL to make more dreams come true as audiences gather to bid farewell to 2023 on the top-rated New Year’s Eve broadcast.”
Powerball’s millionaire selection process
Scheduled to be announced by Ryan Seacrest just after midnight leading into New Year’s January 1, 2024, during the live annual broadcast of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve, the naming of the winner of Powerball’s First Millionaire of the Year will mark the culmination of a special, three-month, multi-stage lottery promotion.
An optimistic kick-off to the new year, the First Millionaire of the Year campaign began back in October 2023 and ran through the end of November 2023.
Powerball players were invited to submit non-winning Powerball tickets to a second chance drawing, which — for a lucky few — granted them the opportunity to move into the semi-finalist category.
Participating state lotteries
Though more than 45 states/jurisdictions in the U.S. have lotteries, only the following 23 participated in this year’s Powerball’s First Millionaire of the Year Promotion: Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virgin Islands, and District of Columbia.
With regard to the second chance drawing, in a unique arrangement, each of the aforementioned states was, at the local level, permitted to set their own deadlines and structure their submission processes as they saw best.
After winnowing down their semi-finalist groups to a pool of 30 or so players, the 23 individual participating state lotteries then turned those names over to the Multi-State Lottery Association (MSLA) which, in turn, entered them into a drawing to produce the ultimate list of five finalists.
Five finalists
On December 1, 2023, in a highly anticipated drawing, the MSLA named the following five persons as finalists:
- Finton Wallace, Rhode Island
- Lora-Lee Casady, Idaho
- Pamela Bradshaw, North Carolina
- Maire Kelly Joyce, New York
- Tracy Lacobie-Goeddel, Georgia
NYC VIP travel package
Win or lose, regardless of whether they take home the top million dollar prize, by being chosen as one of the five finalists, all are guaranteed to receive an all-inclusive, VIP travel package for two.
In what is being billed as an ‘experimental trip,’ in advance of the live, in-person drawing, finalists will be provided with complimentary airfare and three nights hotel accommodations in New York City.
As additional perks, finalists will also receive:
- Two (2) tickets to a welcome event followed by a group dinner at a venue TBD.
- Two (2) tickets for a private NYC excursion and entertainment outing, the specifics of which TBD - past outings have featured one-year tickets to a Broadway show and a different year, a holiday dinner cruise on the Hudson River.
- Two (2) tickets for a VIP New Year’s Eve dinner followed up with by live entertainment.
- Two (2) gift bags, each with a retail value of at least two hundred dollars ($200).
- Complementary meal provisions and ground transportation during stay in NYC.
- One thousand ($1,000) in spending money.
Powerball rundown
In total, according to the Powerball/Rockin website, the approximate retail value of the VIP Trip Prize is estimated to be twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).
After the big countdown and, signifying the ‘official’ start of the New Year — and the ball drop in Times Square, all finalists in attendance will gather to learn their millionaire fate in front of an audience that is said to number upwards of 20 million viewers.
Unable to make the trip to New York City, last year’s winner, North Carolinian Gary Krigbaum, sent his daughter, Sarah Day, in his place. Following his name being announced as the First Powerball Millionaire of 2023, Day reportedly phoned her father enthusiastically, exclaiming, “Dad, Dad, I’m bringing home a million dollars!”
Powerball is a towering force
Powerball® currently holds the world record for largest national lottery jackpot at $2.04 billion. In 2022, Powerball celebrated its 30th anniversary and, for the three decades in between, has contributed more than $29 billion to charitable causes throughout the U.S.
Powerball tickets begin at $2, and drawings take place three times per week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. EST. Players may view Powerball drawings during their local station’s late evening news broadcast or as a live stream on their website.
Despite it being too late to enter this year’s Powerball’s Rockin’ Eve First of the Year Million Dollar Giveaway 2024, at the very least, it is definitely something players will want to keep on their radar screen for 2025.
Cause let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to start off the New Year with a little extra jingle in their pocket.
