One winning ticket was sold in Los Angeles for Wednesday night’s estimated $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said. The mystery winner hadn’t stepped forward to cash in the ticket and has a year to claim the massive windfall, officials said Thursday morning.
“They have to claim their prize, and then we have to spend time vetting the winner to make sure it is the right person,” California Lottery spokesperson Carolyn Becker said during a news conference. “Integrity and transparency are incredibly important to us, so we will probably not know for months and months.”
The winning numbers were 7, 10, 11, 13 and 24, with a Powerball of 24.
The ticket was purchased at the Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown LA, CBS News Los Angeles reports. When the winner comes forward, their name will become public, Becker told reporters. People don’t have to live in California or be U.S. residents to be eligible to win, she said.
“We don’t know if that person lives here locally, if it’s a group, if they were passing by,” Becker said. “… This person could quite literally be anywhere.”
The family who owns the store that sold the winning ticket was presented with a bonus check for a million dollars Thursday.
Reuters/Mike Blake
What do you do if you win Powerball?
The winner will get to pick either a lump sum payment of $558.1 million or an annuity for the $1.08 billion. Both figures are before taxes. Late ticket sales propelled the jackpot past its earlier estimate of $1 billion.
Whoever the winner is, Becker advised them to sign the back of the ticket and put it in a safe place.
“If you discover you’re hanging onto a piece of paper like that, a winning ticket, particularly worth this kind of money, you’re going to want to keep it in the most safe place possible,” she said. “The winning Powerball ticket is the key to claiming that prize.”
Experts told CBS MoneyWatch that people who suddenly come into a lot of money should go through a “cooling-off period” and not rush to make big financial decisions.
Wednesday’s Powerball drawing had more than 4.8 million winning tickets overall and lower-tier cash prizes worth $85.1 million.
It was the second time in eight months that a $1 billion Powerball ticket was sold in Los Angeles County, CBS News Los Angeles points out. In November, a lucky man at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena correctly guessed the numbers accompanying the world-record Powerball jackpot of $2.04 billion.
The jackpot had been swelling since April 19, when a ticket bought in Ohio won a $252.6 million jackpot. Before Wednesday night’s drawing, no one had matched the five white balls and red Powerball in the past 38 chances to win.
The $1.08 billion grand prize is the third largest in the game’s history since it started in 1992. In 2016, the game’s second-largest grand prize of $1.586 billion was split among winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Earlier this year, a ticket sold in Washington state won a $754.6 million jackpot, the game’s sixth largest.
Wednesday night’s pot of gold was the sixth largest in U.S. lottery history.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
In Mega Millions, an estimated $720 million jackpot is up for grabs Friday night after no one matched all six numbers in Tuesday night’s drawing. Those winning numbers were 19, 22, 31, 37, 54 with a Mega Ball of 18.
If someone wins Friday night, the cash option would be an estimated $369.6 million. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
The two jumbo-sized jackpots spurred some people to pool their money and buy tickets by the dozen in the hopes of winning big.
In Southern California, a woman bought 50 lottery tickets on Tuesday at a 7-Eleven for her and her co-workers, CBS News Los Angeles reported.
“I already told them today: If I win tonight, I’m not even coming in, for sure, they know,” the woman told the station. “My boss is in on this with me.”
Powerball tickets cost $2 each and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET.
— Brian Dakss contributed to this report.
