Single Winning Ticket Sold in California for $1 Billion-Plus Powerball Jackpot

A single winning ticket was sold in California for one of the largest Powerball jackpots ever, the lottery group said Wednesday night. At an estimated $1.08 billion, it is the sixth-largest jackpot in U.S. history.

The winning numbers were: 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and another 24 for the Powerball.

No one had won the Powerball or its competing lottery, Mega Millions, since mid-April, sending both jackpots to some of their highest amounts in recent weeks. The next Mega Millions drawing, for $720 million, is Friday.

Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in the multistate Mega Millions and Powerball lottery drawings because of changes to the games over the years and higher ticket prices.

Between the two lotteries, seven jackpots in the United States have reached $1 billion or more since 2016, including four since the start of 2022.

In January, a single ticket-holder in Maine won the fourth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, a Mega Millions jackpot worth $1.35 billion. Less than a month later, on Feb. 6, a Powerball ticket in Washington won $754.6 million, one of that lottery’s largest ever jackpots.

Here’s a look at the 10 biggest U.S. jackpots ever.

The largest lottery jackpot to date, a Powerball drawing, was won on Nov. 7, 2022. The ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, Calif., just north of Pasadena.

Lottery officials said the ticket holder was the first lottery billionaire in the state. It was unclear as of early January 2023 whether the winner had claimed the prize. On Feb. 14, California Lottery officials announced that the winner’s name was Edwin Castro but did not release further biographical information at his request.

The second-biggest jackpot, also a Powerball, was split three ways. The winning numbers were drawn on Jan. 13, 2016, matching tickets bought in California, Florida and Tennessee.

“I think we can all live on $528 million, don’t you think?” Russ Lopez, a spokesman for the California Lottery, said at the time.

The largest Mega Millions prize was the third-largest jackpot overall, with the winning ticket drawn on Oct. 23, 2018, in South Carolina.

It took a while for the prize to be claimed. In March of the following year, an anonymous winner came forward through a lawyer, opting to cash in a one-time lump sum of $877,784,124 instead of taking payments over 30 years.

A single ticket-holder in Maine won an estimated $1.35 billion in the Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 13, 2023. The wining ticket was sold at Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine, according to state lottery officials.

One lucky person in Illinois bought the winning Mega Millions ticket on July 29, 2022. After several weeks, a winner came forward. Once again, the winner’s identity was unknown, because Illinois law lets big winners keep their names and addresses confidential in most cases.

6. $1.08 billion

This is the estimated total for the latest Powerball jackpot, which no one had won since April 19. It’s the third-largest jackpot ever for that organization, behind November 2022 and January 2016.

No one won Monday’s jackpot drawing, so another drawing was held Wednesday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time. The winner could opt to take the payment as a lump sum, which would be about $558.1 million before taxes, Powerball says.

The odds of winning, the organization said, were 1 in 292.2 million.

A group identified as the Wolverine FLL Club of Oakland County won a ticket for just over $1 billion in the Mega Millions drawing on Jan. 22, 2021. Someone picked the numbers at a Kroger grocery store in Novi, a city of about 60,000 people that is 30 miles northwest of Detroit.

Manuel Franco of Wisconsin won a $768.4 million prize in the Powerball drawing on March 27, 2019. The sum was enough for Mr. Franco to quit his job within two days of winning.

Wisconsin has no law protecting the identities of people who win lotteries, which means Mr. Franco was required to come forward publicly.

A 53-year-old health care worker in Massachusetts became a millionaire when she won the Powerball on Aug. 23, 2017. The winner, Mavis Wanczyk, opted for a lump-sum payment of $480.5 million. After taxes — 25 percent to the federal government and 5 percent to her state — she took home $336 million.

10. $754.6 million

After more than two months without a winner, the Powerball jackpot for Feb. 6, 2023, reached $754.6 million, or $407.2 when taken as cash. A single ticket was sold in Washington, lottery officials said, making it the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot, and the ninth-largest overall in U.S. history.

Eduardo Medina, April Rubin and Mike Ives contributed reporting.