In an extraordinary turn of fortune, a California Powerball player has become an overnight billionaire, winning the second-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.
The massive $1.76 billion windfall came from a single winning ticket sold at the Midway Market & Liquors store in Frazier Park, California, during a Wednesday evening drawing held at the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee.
Duke, an employee at Midway Market, is confident the lucky winner hails from their community, given the dedicated patrons who routinely purchase their tickets there. Some regular customers even jokingly promised Duke a truck if they ever won.
The winning Powerball numbers were 22, 24, 40, 52, 64, with the red Powerball number 10.
Now, the jackpot winner must choose between a $774.1 million lump sum or 30 payments over 29 years totaling $1.76 billion, with a 5 percent annual increase. Both options are subject to taxes.
Other winners include a $2 million prize for players in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and seven $1 million winners. California holds the top four positions for the largest Powerball wins, with this win marking the second-largest ever.
The jackpot had rolled over 36 times due to no previous winners, surpassing the 2016 second-place record by about 144 million. The largest Powerball prize ever claimed stands at $2.04 billion, won by a California resident in November 2022.
The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292,201,338, while the chances of winning any prize, even a small one, are one in 24.9.
