A ticket with all six numbers in the latest Powerball lottery drawing was sold in Arkansas and the player has the choice between an annuitized prize of $1.817 billion, the second-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, or a lump sum payment of $834.9 million.
Both figures are before taxes, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game.
If the player selects the annuity option, he or she will receive one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year.
The numbers drawn Wednesday were 4, 25, 31, 52, 59 and the Powerball number was 19.
The drawing was the 47th since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold, the longest gap between jackpot wins in the history of the Powerball game, which began in 1992.
A ticket with all six numbers hadn’t been sold since Sept. 6, when one ticket each with all six numbers was sold in Missouri and Texas, when the jackpot had reached $1.787 billion, then the second-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.9.
There were eight tickets sold with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, including one at a convenience store in Chino Hills, which was worth $2,811,275, the California Lottery announced.
While tickets with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, sold in other states are worth $1 million or $2 million, California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning they are determined by sales and the number of winners.
The other seven tickets sold with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number — two in New York and one each in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia — are each worth $1 million, according to the Multi- State Lottery Association.
The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history is $2.04 billion for the Nov. 7, 2022, Powerball drawing, with the winning ticket sold at a gas station in Altadena.
The Powerball game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
The jackpot for Saturday’s drawing will be $20 million.
–City News Service
