Single-ticket Wins $2.04Bn World Record Jackpot

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A single ticket has won the world record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot.

The jackpot, the largest lottery prize ever, was scooped by a ticket bought in California – after more than three months of nobody winning the top prize. 

News of the win came after Monday night’s draw was delayed and then a Powerball Twitter account wrongly announced that nobody had won.

The numbers for the drawing held in Tallahassee, Florida, were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the red Powerball was 10. 

The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, an unincorporated community in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles. 

The winner, whose identity remains unknown, can now decide whether to take the whole prize as a 30-year annuity or opt for an instant lump sum of around $997.6 million.

The drama of the delayed draw, followed by incorrect reports, including by AFP, that nobody had secured the jackpot, sent social media into overdrive – with an avalanche of Powerball memes shared online. 

The owner of Joe’s Service Center said lotto officials informed him that his store sold the winning ticket before he opened yesterday.

Joe, whose surname hasn’t be released, will win a share of the prize. 

One of his sons said, “There’s no one else that deserves it more than this man.”

The official California Lottery Twitter account said it was the state’s first ever lottery billionaire. 

It added, “We are so excited and we just can’t hide it. Not only did California have the BIG #Powerball winner, three more tickets matched 5 numbers missing just the Powerball in Gardena, Beaumont, and San Francisco. Congratulations to all our players! #CALottery”

The claim that nobody had won the prize was published on an unofficial Powerball website and Twitter account. That was then widely circulated by a respected news wire, AFP, and covered by several news outlets.

It’s not yet clear how many tickets were sold for the latest draw – but an estimated 280 million were sold for Saturday night’s draw, when the jackpot was $1.6billion.

Monday night’s draw for the bumper prize was delayed after an unnamed state said it needed more time to process sales.

Officials carried out the draw yesterday morning and also said new calculations revealed the jackpot was around $100million more than the initial estimate of $1.9 billion. 

The draw yesterday was initially scheduled for Monday night, with millions of Americans eagerly awaiting the results. 

But the deadline came and went without an announcement thanks to one of the 48 participating lotteries not submitting all of its ticket sales and play data to the Multi State Lottery Association. 

There was initial confusion over whether the delay was caused by a glitch or a technical problem, with the California Lottery announcing on Twitter it was down to “security protocols” not being followed. 

The Multi State Lottery Association later clarified that it was down to one state simply not getting through its sales quickly enough to submit them for the result. 

The association said it was against its policy to say which lottery had the delay.

“Due to the length of the draw delay, it is likely that we will not know the official results of the Powerball drawing until Tuesday morning,” the Association said on Monday night in a statement. 

In April, a Powerball drawing was delayed over four hours, also seemingly from a ‘glitch’ that required more time to meet the proper protocols, according to WJW.  

Similarly, last summer, WCBD reported that a Powerball drawing was delayed to allow multiple lotteries extra time.   

The jackpot was the largest since the 2016 $1.586 billion and had an estimated cash out value of $929.1 million. 

The amount was raised after no one came forward with a winning ticket in Saturday’s $1.6 billion game. 

There were 40 drawings without a winner before the prize was finally won, which caused the prize to rack up to new heights. 

To win the jackpot, a person must match all six numbers. The last time a win happened was on August 3 when one Pennsylvania resident won $206.9 million. 

Powerball tickets are $2 per play and are sold in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. 

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. 

The winner can either opt to receive an annuity, a series of annual payments over three decades, to receive the $2.04 billion promised, or cash out for a single, lower payment that is significantly taxed.

If multiple people win, then the prize would have to be split.

Before the winner can walk away with a single payment of the prize money of about $1.4billion, a 24 percent federal tax withholding on gambling winnings will be applied.

The windfall would also tip them into the top tax rate of 37 percent. It means federal tax on the lump sum would amount to an estimated $518 million.

Depending on the winner’s state, more money could be collected in state taxes.

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