After three months and 38 drawings without a winner, someone finally hit all six numbers in a Powerball drawing. Powerball said a winning ticket was sold in California in Wednesday's drawing with a top prize of $1.08 billion.
The jackpot was the third-largest in Powerball's history.
The winning numbers were white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24.
The win means the Powerball jackpot resets to $20 million for Saturday's drawing.
The winner of Wednesday's drawing has a year to claim their prize. Instead of getting $1.08 billion spread out over 30 payments, the winner could opt to have it all paid out in a $558.1 million lump sum.
Why are there so many massive Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots?
Mega Millions and Powerball are set to offer massive jackpots this weekend. The reason is not a coincidence.
What should you do if you win the jackpot? According to State Farm,the first thing you should do is secure your ticket and keep it protected. Then, hire an attorney and financial adviser, the company said.
“You’re going to need a lawyer, accountant and financial adviser who have experience with large financial windfalls — finding them should be one of your first steps before you claim your money,” State Farm said.
While it might be tempting to opt for an annuity given the higher overall payout, investing a lump sum might provide a better return. According to NerdWallet, the stock market's average return is 10%. Given compound interest, it would only take investing a portion of the winnings to become a billionaire within 30 years.
It might still be worth checking your ticket if you didn't win the $1.08 billion jackpot. Thirty-nine people matched all five white ball numbers, 36 of whom will win $1 million. Three others will claim $2 million as they added the Power Play option to their ticket.
Powerball said 62 tickets won $100,000 prizes, while 195 earned $50,000 prizes from Wednesday's drawing.
The Powerball jackpot had steadily grown after a player in Ohio won a $252 million jackpot on April 19. Wednesday marked the fourth winning Powerball ticket sold in 2023.
Man claims lottery prize after clerk allegedly tried to steal ticket
A Massachusetts man finally claimed his Powerball winnings after authorities say a store clerk tried to claim the ticket instead.
Someone in Virginia won a $162.6 million jackpot in the March 4 drawing. The largest prize of the year came when Becky Bell in Washington won a $754.6 million jackpot in the Feb. 6 drawing.
Since Powerball lowered the odds of hitting all six numbers in 2015, the multi-state lottery generally has six to nine winners a year. All 10 of its largest jackpots have also come since 2015. The largest Powerball jackpot in history was $2.04 billion, won on Nov. 7, 2022.
The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million.
Powerball also has prizes ranging from $4 to $2 million. The odds of winning a smaller prize are about 1 in 25. During Wednesday's drawing, 4.8 million people won a prize.
Powerball is played in 45 states and Washington, D.C.
Another multi-state lottery, Mega Millions, will hold its fifth-largest jackpot on Friday at $720 million.
