The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night’s drawing is at least $1.5 billion, the largest lottery jackpot in the world.
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Officials also said 12 tickets were sold in California that matched five of the six winning numbers but not the Powerball number. Some of the biggest Powerball sales have come from cities bordering states that don’t sell the tickets, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
Three Kentucky Lottery players matched all five white ball winning numbers but not the Powerball in Wednesday night’s drawing. Lottery officials were still checking results from other states.
Lottery officials had said 85.8 percent of possible number combinations had been selected by midday Wednesday in what some had been saying was the biggest lottery jackpot in the world.
The chances of taking the top prize were one in 292 million, the New York Times said.
The $1.5 billion prize would be paid in annual payments over 29 years or the victor could opt for a lump-sum payment of $930 million.
Spokesman Alex Traverso tells The Associated Press the jackpot-winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, about 25 miles northeast of Anaheim.
For every $1 worth of Powerball sales, half goes to prizes, 40 percent to causes such as education, and 10 percent to retailers who sell the tickets and other administrative costs, Grief said.
The Lotto Mart sells the second most lottery tickets in the entire state of Georgia.
National Powerball sales Tuesday were more than $326 million and sales nationwide on Wednesday were expected to reach $600 million, Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission and chief of the Powerball Game said earlier Wednesday. The association oversees the Powerball Lottery, but management rotates annually among member states.
Customers buy Powerball lottery tickets at the Blue Bird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. And odds are there will be more than one winning ticket. The odds of winning were 1 in 292.2 million.
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The three jackpot winners will each take home $310 million (€285 million) – a wealth that would put them among the 50 richest people in Ireland.
