After 40 drawings without a jackpot winner, there was one winner of the estimated $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot — the largest grand prize in the game’s quarter-century.
The winning numbers (56-41-33-47-10 and the red Powerball 10) were drawn Tuesday after an unusual delay of several hours due to a technical problem.
The winning ticket was sold in California, at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, the state lottery said.
The drawing, originally scheduled for Monday night, was delayed, the Michigan Lottery announced on Twitter, because one participating lottery was “still processing its sales and play data.”
Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to send in key information before the drawing, the statement said.
“Powerball has stringent security requirements to protect the integrity of the game and remains committed to holding a drawing that gives all players a fair chance to win,” it added.
ADVERTISING
The Minnesota Lottery reportedly took responsibility for the delay, saying in a statement to CBS Minnesota that “after unprecedented lottery interest, Minnesota’s lottery sales verification system caused a processing delay.”
“The delay was necessary to confirm the Powerball drawing could be conducted securely and accurately,” the statement added. “At no time was the integrity of the process compromised.”
The winner will choose between receiving the $2.04 billion in 30 payments over the next three decades or taking a lump sum of $997.6 million all at once.
Under California law, the state lottery is required to disclose the winner’s full name, the name and location of the retailer that sold the ticket and the prize total, according to the California Lottery website.
As Mega Millions hits $1 billion, winning doesn’t mean a happy ending
The jackpot surpasses the previous record of $1.586 billion won in January 2016 and split by three winners.
Those are the only two times a winning Powerball jackpot has surpassed $1 billion, according to Powerball. Mega Millions, a different lottery game, has surpassed a $1 billion jackpot three times, most recently in July, when a $1.337 billion ticket was sold in Illinois.
The Powerball organization started in 15 states and now operates in 45 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, changed the game’s format in October 2015, The Washington Post reported the following year.
The association upped the number of those white balls that fill the tumbler from 59 to 69, which doubled the combinations of white balls, The Post reported. Odds of winning the jackpot went from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292 million. But the group did make it easier to win non-jackpot prizes, by decreasing the number of red Powerball balls to 26 from 35 — jackpot winners must correctly guess five numbers and the final red ball.
Tuesday’s drawing was the first since Aug. 3 to have a player win the jackpot, after 40 straight drawings without a big winner. It tied the previous high for longest stretch without a jackpot winner, which ended in November 2021 with a jackpot of nearly $700 million.
Nearly 100 people have won lower-tier prizes of $1 million or more since Aug. 3, according to Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko, who chairs the Powerball Product Group.
In addition to the jackpot winner, a Powerball player in Florida won a $2 million prize for matching all five white numbers with a Power Play ticket multiplying the prize money, while 22 other players won $1 million for getting the five white balls correct.
The winning numbers (56-41-33-47-10 and the red Powerball 10) were drawn Tuesday after an unusual delay of several hours due to a technical problem.
The winning ticket was sold in California, at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, the state lottery said.
The drawing, originally scheduled for Monday night, was delayed, the Michigan Lottery announced on Twitter, because one participating lottery was “still processing its sales and play data.”
Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to send in key information before the drawing, the statement said.
“Powerball has stringent security requirements to protect the integrity of the game and remains committed to holding a drawing that gives all players a fair chance to win,” it added.
ADVERTISING
The Minnesota Lottery reportedly took responsibility for the delay, saying in a statement to CBS Minnesota that “after unprecedented lottery interest, Minnesota’s lottery sales verification system caused a processing delay.”
“The delay was necessary to confirm the Powerball drawing could be conducted securely and accurately,” the statement added. “At no time was the integrity of the process compromised.”
The winner will choose between receiving the $2.04 billion in 30 payments over the next three decades or taking a lump sum of $997.6 million all at once.
Under California law, the state lottery is required to disclose the winner’s full name, the name and location of the retailer that sold the ticket and the prize total, according to the California Lottery website.
As Mega Millions hits $1 billion, winning doesn’t mean a happy ending
The jackpot surpasses the previous record of $1.586 billion won in January 2016 and split by three winners.
Those are the only two times a winning Powerball jackpot has surpassed $1 billion, according to Powerball. Mega Millions, a different lottery game, has surpassed a $1 billion jackpot three times, most recently in July, when a $1.337 billion ticket was sold in Illinois.
The Powerball organization started in 15 states and now operates in 45 states, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, changed the game’s format in October 2015, The Washington Post reported the following year.
The association upped the number of those white balls that fill the tumbler from 59 to 69, which doubled the combinations of white balls, The Post reported. Odds of winning the jackpot went from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292 million. But the group did make it easier to win non-jackpot prizes, by decreasing the number of red Powerball balls to 26 from 35 — jackpot winners must correctly guess five numbers and the final red ball.
Tuesday’s drawing was the first since Aug. 3 to have a player win the jackpot, after 40 straight drawings without a big winner. It tied the previous high for longest stretch without a jackpot winner, which ended in November 2021 with a jackpot of nearly $700 million.
Nearly 100 people have won lower-tier prizes of $1 million or more since Aug. 3, according to Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko, who chairs the Powerball Product Group.
In addition to the jackpot winner, a Powerball player in Florida won a $2 million prize for matching all five white numbers with a Power Play ticket multiplying the prize money, while 22 other players won $1 million for getting the five white balls correct.
