Winner of $1.3B Jackpot Comes Forward

UPDATE Apr 10, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

A person with a ticket matching all six Powerball numbers in Saturday's $1.3 billion jackpot came forward Monday to claim the prize from last weekend's drawing, but the winner won't be announced for at least a couple more weeks until their ticket is verified and arrangements for the massive payment are made, Oregon lottery officials said Tuesday. The winner bought the ticket at a convenience store in northeastern Portland. For selling the winning ticket, the eighth-largest lottery prize in US history, managers of the Plaid Pantry location plan to share their $100,000 bonus, the AP reports. The store's other employees typically get a cut of lottery prize bonus payments, too, said Jonathan Polonsky, CEO and president of Plaid Pantry.

Apr 7, 2024 6:28 AM CDT

A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, reports the AP, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The single ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement. The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings. The winning numbers drawn early Sunday were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69, and the red Powerball 9.

Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball's top prize since New Year's Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021. The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the eighth largest in US lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales and the jackpots subsequently become harder to hit. The game's long odds for the weekend drawing were 1 in 292.2 million. Saturday night's scheduled drawing was held up and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30am Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59pm, Powerball said in a statement.

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