$2bn Powerball Was Won- When Can You Expect Another 2bn Jackpot?
The past November 7th, a ticket sold in California hit all the numbers for the record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said. There has been no winner of the Powerball after 40 consecutive drawings. If the winner receives their cash payout, they will take home $997.6m altogether before taxes. The California Lottery, part of the MUSL, announced on Twitter that the winning ticket – which matched all six numbers – was purchased at a local service centre in Altadena, California. For more information, check the US lottery results.
Another winner from Florida won a prize of $2 million. It is unclear where the winner purchased their ticket.
In addition to the grand-prize winner, twenty-two other people won smaller sums of $1 million. The 22 other winners were chosen from across the country in 16 states. These lucky participants hailed from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, Maryland and Georgia.
On Tuesday, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) – which oversees the draw – announced that the jackpot had increased to a whopping $2.04bn from an earlier estimate of $1.9bn, making it the largest lottery prize in history.
The night before, the long-awaited Powerball draw was postponed for nearly 10 hours. The reason? One of the 48 participating lotteries hadn’t processed and sent in its sales data yet–and all 48 are required to do so before the drawing takes place.
“Powerball has strict security measures in place to protect the integrity of the game,” the organisation said. “We remain committed to holding a drawing that gives all players an equal chance to win.” The state lottery experiencing delays was not identified.
What were the winning numbers for the Powerball draw?
The draw was originally supposed to take place at 11:30 pm EST (04:30 GMT) on Monday night, but it got moved to Tuesday at 9:00 am instead (14:00 GMT).
The winning numbers were 10, 33, 41, 47, and 56, with the power number being 10.
While in some states, winners of large amounts of money are allowed to remain anonymous, others – like California – require the winner’s identity to be used to create a trust to claim the winnings.
The most recent world-record jackpot before this one was set in 2016 when three Powerball players won a combined $1.59bn.
Although there was no grand prize winner in Saturday’s draw, 16 people won $1 million each by matching the five main numbers. Another ticket – drawn in Kentucky – won $2 million, while 219 tickets across the US won $50,000 each, and 51 won $150,000 each.
The last Powerball jackpot to reach 41 consecutive drawings before the 2021 draw was in 2016, which ended with a $700m winner in California.
The odds of winning the jackpot
The company says that the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot were nearly impossible at one in 292.2 million.
What is the reason behind the large jackpot?
The recent record-breaking jackpot is partly due to changes the lottery made a few years ago. To increase sales, it lessened the difficulty of winning smaller prizes but upped the ante for winning the grand prize.
Under the previous rules, players had to choose five numbers from one to 59. The new tweak says players can now pick any number from one to 69.
In addition to the five numbers they’ve selected, players also pick the sixth number, called the Powerball, from one to 26.
Your current odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 292.2 million, which is significantly higher than it was previously at 1 in 175.2 million.
This isn’t the first time that game rules for the lottery have been adjusted – it has made regular changes throughout its 30-year history and only recently added a Monday night draw.
How do you play Powerball?
You can buy a Powerball ticket for $2. If you win, you can receive your earnings all at once in lump sum form or spread out over 29 years through an annuity. However, most winners get paid immediately via the lump sum option.
The game started in 1992 and is now being played in different parts of America, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Washington.
The only way to win the jackpot is by correctly guessing all six numbers that are drawn. If more than one person guesses the same number combination, they will split the prize equally.
Taxes on lottery winnings vary depending on the winner’s location but are typically between 24-37%. Out of fifty states, only ten do not have state taxes.
Several locations – New York City, for example- also tax gambling winnings.
The last time somebody won the jackpot was on 3 August. They opted for a lump sum payment of $206.9 million.
A “Mega Millions” ticket sold in Illinois won a staggering $1.34bn dollars in July.
The legal age to play the lottery is 18 in most states, but a few have raised the limit to 21.
