A lucky person from Oregan just hit the jackpot of his lifetime in the Powerball lottery, scoring a whopping $1.3 billion win! Can you imagine? After more than three months of nobody winning, finally, this person’s luck turned around and so will be his now for sure.
The $1.33 billion jackpot is the fourth-largest in Powerball history, with the cash value of $621 million.
There were also seven $1 million winners in this draw. The drawing was originally scheduled for 10:59 p.m. ET.
Just for our audience who don’t know. Powerball is a popular lottery game played in many states across the United States. It’s kinda like those big jackpot games you see on TV or hear about from friends.
Basically, you buy a ticket with a set of numbers, and then they draw numbers randomly. If your numbers match the ones they draw, you win! It’s known for its huge jackpot prizes, sometimes reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. People get pretty excited about it, dreaming of what they’d do if they hit the big jackpot.
So, here are the lucky numbers which were drawn in this case: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69, and the cherry on top, the red Powerball number 9.
Before this win, it felt like forever since the last jackpot winner – 41 drawings in a row to be exact! That’s a pretty long dry spell, matching records set in 2022 and 2021.
As the jackpot grows, more people rush to buy tickets, making it even tougher to hit the big prize. The odds of winning the Powerball are already incredibly slim, sitting at 1 in 292.2 million. That’s like finding a needle in a haystack!
The scheduled drawing for Saturday night ran into some delays, pushing it back to the wee hours of Sunday morning. The Florida Lottery studio was buzzing with anticipation as organizers hustled to finalize everything before the clock struck 10:59 p.m. Powerball explained that strict rules require every ticket sold across the nation to be meticulously checked against multiple computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn. This ensures fairness and equal chances for all participants. In this case, one jurisdiction needed some extra time to wrap up this process.
Powerball is a massive game played across 45 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s a nationwide phenomenon, drawing in millions of hopefuls each week, all dreaming of hitting it big.
Now, for the lucky winner, they’ve got some decisions to make. They can either take the prize as an annuity, spread out over 30 years, or take the cash option, which would be a cool $608.9 million upfront. Of course, there are taxes to consider too, but still, not a bad haul for picking a few lucky numbers!