Buying a Powerball ticket now offers the chance to daydream about spending the largest lottery jackpot in the world — some $1.5 billion.
POWERBALL NUMBERS ARE IN: The winning numbers are 8-27-34-4-19 and Powerball 10.
We have a winner in California! A jackpot-winning ticket was sold in Chino Hills. We’re still awaiting results from other states.
— California Lottery (@calottery) January 14, 2016
Cities that sold tickets that matched 5 of six numbers: Nipton, Chula Vista, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica... (1/2)
— California Lottery (@calottery) January 14, 2016
Cities that sold tickets that matched 5 of 6 numbers: Tustin, Pacoima, Vacaville, Cloverdale, Redlands, Gardena, Irwindale (2/2)
— California Lottery (@calottery) January 14, 2016
One California Lottery player is part of history tonight as they will take away at least some of the record-breaking $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot. The lucky ticket was purchased at the 7-Eleven located at 4092 Chino Hills Parkway in Chino Hills (San Bernardino County).
The ticket matched the winning numbers 04-08-19-27-34 and Powerball number 10 for tonight’s draw, which took place moments ago in Tallahassee, Florida.
We do not know if this winning player will have to split the $1.586 billion with winners in other states and jurisdictions. It will be a couple hours or even longer before we know if anyone in the 43 other states where Powerball is played (as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) has won part of the record $1.586 billion jackpot. It depends on whether any of the other jurisdictions experience technical difficulties. We will let everyone know the moment we receive word!
In addition, 12 tickets sold throughout California matched five of six numbers 04-08-19-27-34 missing the Powerball number 10 in tonight’s draw. We will know the amounts for those tickets in a couple of hours.
While we still don’t know who the California winners are, we do know where the winning tickets were sold:
- PRIMM VALLEY LOTTO, 15 & STATELINE, NIPTON
- 7-ELEVEN, 290 I ST, CHULAVISTA
- LARKFIELD UNION, 4605 OLD REDWOOD HWY, SANTA ROSA
- CHEVRON #1720, 404 SOQUEL AVE, SANTA CRUZ
- JERRY'S LIQUOR, 2923 WILSHIRE BL, SANTA MONICA
- TUSTIN FUEL & MARKET, 16851 MCFADDEN AV, TUSTIN
- EDEN ROC LIQUOR, 13404 VAN NUYS BL, PACOIMA
- 7-ELEVEN, 2000 NUT TREE RD, VACAVILLE
- QUIK STOP #4141, 601 N CLOVERDALE BL, CLOVERDALE
- 7-ELEVEN, 1601 W REDLANDS BLVD, REDLANDS
- TED'S LIQUOR STORE, 18303 S WESTERN AVE, GARDENA
- SPOT NOT AUTO WASH & GAS, 15612 ARROW HWY, IRWINDALE
Later Wednesday night, CA Lottery officials told ABC News that two more winning Powerball jackpot tickets were sold in Florida and Tennessee.
BREAKING: Tennessee and Florida also have #Powerball winners, along with California.
— Gio Benitez (@GioBenitez) January 14, 2016
Powerball is a multistate game played in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Draw times are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7:59 p.m. PST. Ticket sales are suspended from 7:00 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. the day of the draw. Tickets are $2 and can be purchased from any of the 22,000 California Lottery retailers or one of the more than 4,000 Lottery Lucky Retailers. Please visit the California Lottery’s Powerball site for more information on how to play.
And remember, as jackpots rise, the California Lottery would like to remind players that gambling should be fun. Borrowing money to play, spending above a person’s budget or using money intended for other purposes can ultimately lead to significant problems for players and their families. If a player recognizes that they have a gambling problem or if someone knows of someone who may have a problem, the Lottery recommends calling the Problem Gambling Help Line at 1-800-GAMBLER.
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A RECORD JACKPOT
The jackpot for the twice-weekly game started at $40 million on Nov. 4 and has been growing ever since. Gary Grief with the Texas Lottery, which is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association, said the $1.4 billion figure is definitely the world's largest.
Officials increased the jackpot Monday from the initial estimate of $1.3 billion because of strong sales Sunday. The jackpot estimate is reviewed daily.
READ: Can we all get $4m if we share Powerball?
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A DECIMAL DILEMMA
Some electronic billboards and signs at convenience stores are having trouble touting this jackpot because it is so big. The signs were designed with millions — not billions — in mind.
So in Texas, billboards are advertising the prize as $999 million.
In Iowa, the message printed Sunday at the bottom of all lottery tickets said the next Powerball jackpot would be $1,300 million. That was technically correct, but officials fixed the glitch by the time the jackpot grew to $1.4 billion on Monday.
When a jackpot is so big...@calottery has to modify their signs to fit the number...#Powerball @ABC10 pic.twitter.com/baoUGu8THU
— Frances Wang (@ABC10Frances) January 13, 2016
READ: The curse of the lottery: Why winning the Powerball could kill you
Spending too much money on the lottery tickets? See the phone numbers for the Gamblers hotline
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THE ODDS OF WINNING THE POWEBALL JACKPOT
The odds of winning #Powerball's jackpot are 1 in 292 million. https://t.co/jbPc87aWd2 pic.twitter.com/Lf66TSJLRV
— ABC News (@ABC) January 13, 2016
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COVERING ALL POSSBILE COMBINATIONS
Lottery officials say 75 percent of the 292.2 million number combinations were purchased ahead of Saturday's drawing.
Powerball officials will allow you to purchase all possible combinations, but it isn't a smart thing to do. At $2 a ticket, the strategy would cost about $584 million, and when taxes are subtracted, you'd end up losing money.
Plus, if someone else matched the winning numbers, too, you'd have to split the prize. While you'd make back some of your investment on smaller prizes paid for matching three, four or five numbers plus the Powerball, chances are it still isn't a good bet.
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LUCK OF THE DRAW
Roughly 95 percent of Powerball tickets are computer-generated quick picks, so people's favorite numbers aren't really a factor. Officials don't track which numbers are most popular because so many are randomly generated.
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THE PAYOFF: HUGE, EVEN AFTER TAXES
A winner would have the option of being paid $1.4 billion through annual payments over 29 years or opting for one $868 million cash payment. But 39.6 percent of the lump sum would go to federal income taxes.
Plus, most states would take a chunk — something winners in Florida, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming wouldn't have to worry about because those states have no income tax. California, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Tennessee also generally exempt lottery winnings from taxes.
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SHARING IS CARING
Some people believe that pooling their money with co-workers will improve their chance of winning, but with such tiny odds, adding 50 or 100 chances doesn't give you a leg up. And if your group is lucky, lottery officials recommend preventing hard feelings by putting in writing how you plan to split the prize, since it's easy for misunderstandings to crop up when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.
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A WORD OF CAUTION
The executive director of the Texas Lottery trumpeted the big jackpot over the weekend, but urged those hoping to hit it big not to spend more than they can afford. "We're very concerned about people playing responsibly and not overspending," Gary Grief said. "It only takes one ticket to win."
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Associated Press Writer Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
