A Powerball lottery player in Oregon instantly became a billionaire this past Sunday (07), when he matched the six numbers drawn, ending a period of more than three months without winners. The prize of US$1.326 billion is the eighth largest in the history of the lottery in the United States.
Winning the Powerball lottery is more difficult than Mega-Sena
The drawing, which took place on Saturday night, was postponed and held at the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. on Sunday. This then allowed the organizers to complete the necessary procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 pm as required by the Powerball game rules.
The single winning ticket matched the numbers 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball number, 09. But until the last drawing, no one had won the top prize since New Year’s Day, making a total of 41 consecutive draws without a winner.
The top prize has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to receive a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years. Thus, with an immediate payment followed by 29 annual installments (reaching, in this case, US$ 1.3 billion).
However, federal and state taxes are levied on the prize, considerably reducing the final amount that the winner receives.
After all, the bigger the prizes, the more tickets are sold, making it harder to hit the jackpots. To give you an idea, the probability for this weekend’s draw was 1 in 292.2 million.
Powerball is played in the United States in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Therefore, the draw attracted the attention of millions of people across the country, fueling dreams of instant fortune and prosperity.
