Breaking News: A winning $2 billion Powerball ticket was sold in Los Angeles County, lottery officials said, at a gas station just north of Pasadena. The jackpot is the largest in U.S. history.
After an overnight delay held up the drawing of the largest jackpot in American history on Monday, lottery officials in California said Tuesday that a winning, $2 billion ticket was sold in Los Angeles County.
The California Lottery said the “only winning” Powerball ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, a gas station just north of Pasadena. Lottery officials said the ticket holder is now the first lottery billionaire in the state. The identity of the winner has not been announced yet.
Powerball officials announced the winning numbers on Tuesday morning: 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with another 10 as the Powerball. The video announcing the winning numbers did not address the delay. The winning ticket matched all six numbers.
The drawing, originally scheduled for 10:59 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, had been delayed by several hours because one of the 48 participating state lotteries needed “extra time to complete the required security protocols,” Powerball said in a statement.
A Minnesota lottery official said in an email that, after “unprecedented lottery interest,” its “sales verification system caused a processing delay.” The official added that “the integrity of the process” was never compromised, and that the Minnesota State Lottery was “conducting a thorough review.”
The Powerball jackpot grew steadily for months after 40 straight drawings without a winner and set off a frenzy of ticket-buying across the country by routine lottery players and even some skeptics, hopeful that the odds of winning, one in 292.2 million, would tilt in their favor.
The winner will receive the largest payout in U.S. lottery history, eclipsing the $1.586 billion payout in 2016 split among three Powerball winners in California, Florida and Tennessee, which set a world record, officials said.
On Monday morning at a Wawa convenience store in Manassas, Va., some 30 miles southwest of Washington, Seymour Jordan, 61, picked out Powerball numbers on a machine while a man waited patiently behind him.
Mr. Jordan said he and five co-workers at a security services company had pooled their money, each of them kicking in $12 for the latest draw. It is the fourth time that the group has teamed up to try to beat the long odds; they’ve won about $30 so far, he said.
On Monday, he said, he just purchased one set for himself, envisioning taking care of his church, his two adult children and 11 grandchildren. “It could change my life and my family’s life for the rest of our lives,” he said, contemplating a win. But, he added: “My wife is like, ‘I wish you would stop.’”
Some were hoping the long shot would fall their way. At a 7-Eleven convenience store in Gainesville, Va., a promotion offered a “fortune & cookie” for $3: one dollar for the cookie and $2 for a set of Powerball numbers. Customers like David Gudinas, 52, were occasional lottery players, but the outsize jackpot was too tempting to pass up.
Mr. Gudinas, who has a 17-year-old daughter headed to college next year, bought five tickets, though he admitted that the odds were stacked against him.
“I thought it was worth the $10 for the entertainment value,” said Mr. Gudinas, who said he was a federal employee. He said he would “save some, spend some” and probably tuck away a fund for college tuition if he won.
But he was not planning to stay up for the late-night drawing. “I will probably be asleep,” he said.
At a Chevron gas station in Miami on Thursday, Ruben Perez, 82, had a plan for what he would do with the jackpot.
He said he would “take my wife and go somewhere better” than Miami, where he has lived for 20 years. One possible destination, he said, would be his wife’s native Honduras.
Mr. Perez, a former police officer and a longtime Powerball player, said he usually spent about $50 a week on the tickets.
“I just hope somebody that needs it, gets it,” he added. “Even if it’s not me.”
The Powerball prize is the second billion-dollar jackpot in recent months. This summer, a single Mega Millions ticket sold in Des Plaines, Ill., won $1.34 billion. Previous billion-dollar jackpots were won in 2016, 2018 and 2021.
Players can buy a $2 Powerball ticket in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The five states that do not participate are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.
Winners can choose to have the prize paid in a lump sum, worth around $929.1 million, or in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, worth just over $2 billion. The first thing winners should do, according to experts, is seek advice from a lawyer, a financial adviser and an accountant. And winners should research the professionals they turn to for help, checking the status of their licenses and getting references. (Those resources are online.)
States oversee lottery operations and have different rules for how winnings are taxed and whether the names of the winners must be made public.
In Florida, anyone can request a winner’s name, city of residence and the amount they won. People who win $250,000 or more are exempt from this rule for 90 days from the day that they claim the prize.
In Miami, Janice Lusky Greenspan said that she played the lottery a few times each year, usually buying five or 10 tickets at a time, but the record Powerball jackpot inspired her to buy 15 tickets at a Publix supermarket on Thursday morning after she dropped her son off at his high school.
“First thing I do after I win?” she said. “Change my phone number.”
Christine Chung, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Remy Tumin and Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.
NYT