The estimated Powerball jackpot was holding steady at $1.5 billion just hours ahead of Wednesday night’s drawing, though same-day ticket sales could push the record-breaking amount even higher. Lottery officials could also announce additional winners in the coming hours.
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The winning numbers are 4, 8, 19, 27, 34 and the Powerball was 10.
Within minutes, California’s state lottery tweeted that a winning ticket had been sold in the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number are about 1 in 293 million, according to the Powerball website.
“If I win, I’ll give it all away to poor people”, said NY restaurant deliveryman Osman Gamie, 43, after buying a dozen of the $2 tickets at a midtown Manhattan grocery.
The store where the victor bought the ticket will get a $1 million bonus for selling it, Traverso said.
He added that a victor in IL would actually take home is more like $540 million instead of 1.5 billion because of taxes. If you do that, you won’t get the $1.5 billion that comes with taking annuity payments for the next 29 years. If you match all of the first five numbers (in any order) as well as the red Powerball number, you’ll be extremely wealthy. It crossed into the top 10 largest lottery prizes in the US on January 3, when it hit $400 million.
Lottery prizes are taxed like income, which means the jackpot victor will have to shell out 39.6% of their winnings to Uncle Sam.
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And while some have pointed out that, mathematically speaking, it’s not actually worth risking to play for the jackpot, it’s still fun to imagine what would happen if you actually won. In that case, the prize could go up to $2 billion. If a victor takes a one-time lump sum, which is generally the case, the jackpot is “only” $930 million. The jackpot on November 4 was $40 million. Powerball is a multistate game played in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
