Powerball lottery player wins $1.08 billion jackpot in California
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A Powerball lottery player in California hit the $1.08 billion jackpot on Wednesday night, making them the winner of the third largest prize in the game’s history.
Winning numbers were 7, 10, 11, 13, 24, and the red Powerball 24.
The winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market, a small convenience store in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles.
Nobody has come forward to claim the ticket yet, but the family of storeowner Navor Herrera believe it was an elderly woman who lives in the neighborhood.
“Hispanic lady, an old lady,” Herrera’s stepdaughter, Angelica Menjivar, told The Post, “100% a Latina lady.”
The winner has up to one year to claim their cash, and California law stipulates they cannot remain anonymous once they do so. Winners have been known to wait months before claiming their prize while they assemble financial and legal teams.
They can choose to collect the full jackpot through annual increments paid out over 29 years (roughly $37million per year) or opt to walk away with a lump sum of $558.1 million upfront.
A 24% federal withholding tax is automatically applied to lump-sum takers, with roughly another 13% added for their new top-tier income bracket, totaling 37% handed over to the federal government, according to CNBC. As California does not charge state income tax for lottery prizes, if the Jackpot winner chooses a lump sum they will take away about $325,000,000.
The final jackpot after taxes for the 29-year plan would be about $631,000,000.
On Thursday afternoon a woman ran screaming into Las Palmitas Mini Market claiming she was the winner, but left without giving her name or presenting a ticket. It remains unclear if she was the true winner.
However, it is clear who at least one winner is — in California, the store that sells the winning ticket is awarded 0.5% of the jackpot capped at $1 million, which Herrera and his family will be walking away with.
California schools are also big winners in the Powerball.
About ninety-five cents of every $2 Powerball ticket is funneled back into the California public school system, according to the California Lottery.
Across the 2021-22 fiscal year, about $2 billion of the $8 billion raised across every California lottery was distributed to public schools and universities across the state, KCRA 3 reported.
Most of the remainder of the Powerball ticket price goes towards the jackpot.
Besides the mystery winner of the grand prize, three ticketholders won a $2 million prize for matching each of the white balls and the Power Play.
Thirty-six people — including two in New Jersey and five in New York — matched all five white balls for the $1 million prize.
Wednesday night’s win comes after 39 drawings without a jackpot winner, dating back to April 19, when a ticketholder in Ohio won $252.6 million.
The odds of winning the Grand Prize jackpot are an astronomically low — about 1 in 292,201,338.
It marks the third time someone in California won at least $1 billion through Powerball.
In November, Golden State resident Edwin Castro won the $2.04 billion drawing, the largest jackpot in the history of Powerball.
Castro opted for the cash payment of $997.6 million and splurged $25.5 million on a luxurious Hollywood Hills mansion, though he is accused of stealing the winning ticket.
Marvin and Mae Acosta, a couple from Chino Hills, Calif., split the $1.6 billion jackpot with winners from Florida and Tennessee in 2016.
The couple remained anonymous for six months after their win and chose the cash payment worth an estimated $327.8 million before taxes.
“We are thankful and blessed for the rare gift that has been placed in our care,” the couple said in 2016. “While we are very grateful for the wonderful wishes and encouragement we’ve received, it is not our intention to become public figures, and we ask for and appreciate privacy going forward. Thank you.”
For unlucky Powerball players, there’s still a chance to become a millionaire.
The Mega Millions jackpot rose to an estimated $720 million and its next drawing is set for Friday night.
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