$1.6 billion Powerball jackpot goes to 3 winners in 3 states
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annette Spadafore leaves a store with her lottery ticket today in San Diego. With a Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night’s drawing at an estimated $1.5 billion, many flocked to pick up a ticket in hopes of winning what could be the largest lottery jackpot in the world.
7-Eleven store clerk M. Faroqui celebrated with customers after learning the store sold a winning Powerball ticket on Wednesday in Chino Hills, Calif. The identity of the winner is not yet known. (Will Lester/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
MUNFORD, Tenn. » An eye-popping, unprecedented $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot that became a national fascination will be split three ways, by mystery winners in Florida, Tennessee and California.
The lucky trio did not immediately identify themselves today, but they bought their tickets in Munford, a town of about 6,000 in Tennessee; the modest Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills; and at a supermarket in Melbourne Beach, Florida, where residents of a nearby housing development were heard partying loudly after Wednesday night’s drawing.
The winners of the world-record jackpot overcame odds of 1 in 292.2 million to land on all the numbers: 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10. They can let the jackpot be invested and thereby collect 30 annual payments totaling an estimated $533 million, or split $983.5 million in cash all at once.
The huge draw also produced eight $2 million Power Play winners and 73 $1 million winners nationwide who matched all five white balls but missed the red Powerball, said Sally Lunsford of the Kansas Lottery.
The California ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, lottery spokesman Alex Traverso told The Associated Press. The winning Florida ticket was sold at a Publix grocery store. Tennessee officials did not immediately say which of the three Munford stores offering Powerball tickets produced the winner.
That store will get a $25,000 check; Florida’s store collects $100,000, and Traverso said a $1 million bonus will be shared between the Chino Hills store owner and the 7-Eleven company — amounts that follow each state’s rules.
TV trucks from Memphis quickly arrived in Munford, where people marveled over the winning ticket and joked about what they would have done with the money.
Auto body shop worker Jerry Caudle said he was “freaking out” when he heard a winning ticket was sold in his town, but then saw that he matched only two numbers, for a prize of $14. He wore a wistful smile as he left the Munford Short Stop gas station and convenience store, which offers Tipton County’s “best chicken on a stick” for $3.69.
“It’s been tough,” Caudle said. “The hardest winter for me here in 17 years.”
The California store and its surrounding strip mall suddenly became a popular gathering spot in the usually quiet suburb of 75,000. Hundreds of people, from news crews to gawkers, crowded the store and spilled into its parking lot, cheering and mugging for the cameras, and chanting “Chino Hills! Chino Hills!”
Michael Fahim, 48, real estate broker from Chino Hills, said he bought 20 lottery tickets Wednesday night just up the street. “I’m happy it’s in Chino Hills. I think it put us on the map – all over the world,” he said, adding that his brother called from Australia overnight to learn if he won.
The 7-11’s owner, Balbir Atwal, arrived to find people cheering in the parking lot. Some took selfies with the store clerk, who became an instant celebrity and may well have been the man who sold the ticket.
“I’m very proud that the ticket was sold here,” the clerk, M. Faroqui, told the local San Bernardino Sun. “I’m very happy. This is very exciting.”
In Melbourne Beach, neighbors were gossiping that the winner might be someone in a housing development several miles from the Publix where loud partying could be heard after Wednesday night’s drawing, according to Lisa Londini, a professional caregiver who was shopping at the market today.
“The winner could be as close as your neighbors!” she said, visibly excited. “I wish it was me!”
Ticket sales and payouts had risen steadily as weeks came and went without a jackpot winner since Nov. 4, when the amount was reset at $40 million. For Wednesday night’s drawing alone, Powerball sales totaled $1,270,206,274. In addition to three jackpot winners, more than 26 million other winning tickets will pay out total cash prizes of $273,869,373, Lunsford said.
Spain’s massively popular Christmas lottery, known as “El Gordo,” is ranked as the world’s richest, though it doles out millions of prizes rather than one large jackpot like the Powerball. El Gordo last month showered 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) across the country.
Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Many residents of the six that don’t participate crossed state lines to get their hands on tickets before the drawing, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
38 responses to “$1.6 billion Powerball jackpot goes to 3 winners in 3 states”
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So what was the reasoning behind Hawaii not getting involved? Sucks
Politicians use the same old tired line that gambling preys on the poor.
You mean the truth?
I don’t know if it’s the truth. I’m sure wealthy people gamble too, considering the junkets that fly in and out of Vegas from all parts of the world. Those aren’t “poor” people flying from Hawai’i to Vegas daily and not everyone who stood in line for a chance at the $1.6 Billion Powerball Lottery ticket was poor.
Tita, it’s a regressive tax on the poor because they can ill afford to be wasting money on a 1:292 million chance. OTOH, we do live in a country of free will, mostly, unless it’s bad for us.
IIRC the poor do play the lottery at a higher rate to their population than the more well off so in that regards the politicians may be right. However my mentality is that you can’t regulate stupidity. People are responsible for their own actions. Having government babysit everyone isn’t the way to go.
cholo agrees
They don’t call it the “Idiot Tax” for nothing…
It’s THEIR money. Let them use it the way THEY want. Can you tell a smoker not to buy cigarettes because it’s bad for them? Can you tell an alcoholic to buy bottled water instead because it’s healthier? Can you tell a traveler that goes to Asia or Europe to stay here and visit the outer islands and support the local economy instead? THEIR money, THEIR choice. Too many people sticking their noses in other peoples business. But they grumble because we pay tax for this, we pay tax for that. NOBODY tells ME how to spend MY money, so, I don’t tell THEM how to spend THEIRS.
How is government stopping poor people from spending their money on drugs and alcohol ?
Hawaii’s leaders only want to earn money the old fashioned way. On a minimum wage job.
WE WANT LOTTERY! Spineless politicians. Legislator that introduces the bill will be a future governor.
Legalize the lottery here (no casinos). All those people who go to Las Vegas would buy tickets. Use some of the money to fund the UH Athletics program. Can you imagine the kinds of upgrades that would buy.
Read in a mainland newspaper that in California, 80 cents of every $2 ticket sold goes to education. Would help UH, fix up schools and put in A/Cs.
SA is still teasing Hawaii residents about a lottery that we are not eligible to play. Now , onto the next news article that we can use.
Not true you can have someone buy a ticket for you in the state its legal . thing is you will pay hawaii state tax on the winning if you get lucky
Yeah, they don’t want lottery, but if you win from a ticket bought in another state, they want you to pay Hawaii taxes. No make sense.
Strange that Hawaii a liberal state as any other is opposed to the lottery? Just indicate the hypocrisy of the legislators and local movers and shakers. Could be they prefer to limit the numbers of the rich. Much tax revenue in the meantime is being ignored. The wasteful “Rail” to nowhere could be easily funded in this manner with less rancor from the taxpayers!
Liberalism = paternalism, condescension, and hypocrisy.
Hawaii’s politics is still being run by a political machine that wants full control of its residents in our ever move. We are just a puppet on a string to our leaders who have sold out Hawaii to Wall Street.
We are going to need at least a lottery to pay for rail. Ive heard lots of excuses about gambling causing social ills but nobody else is responsible for another person’s poor choices.
Their money, let them use it the way they want. I bet if I told anyone that opposes a lottery how to spend/use their money, they would tell me “It’s none of your business how I spend my money.” So, if people want to buy expensive cars, go on lavish vacations, buy cigarettes (which is bad for your health), buy drugs (which is worse yet), I say go right ahead. Your $$$, do what you like.
Maybe the winners will come here and spend their loot?
I wonder if those opposed to the lottery are the same ones who are paranoid that any relaxation of Hawaii’s gun laws will lead to rampant gun crime? It’s just that those are two issues that I know of that Hawaii is at the far end of the spectrum compared to most other places.
I am glad to hear more than one person will be sharing this but it is a shame that most people who win the lottery are no longer millionaires after 5 years. Maybe they just blow it, maybe they have relatives coming out of the woodwork begging for money and maybe they are not bright enough to invest it properly.
I forgot the percentage but there was a sizable percentage (maybe 40%) that was broke after 5 years. Most lottery winners don’t win anything near the amount of this powerball but it still goes to show that sometimes money can cause more problems than it solves. Personally I’d rather be one of the $1 million winners than one of the powerball winners for this lottery.
Jesus Christ people, if you wanted to buy a ticket so badly, you could have just used one of the many websites that were offering to get the tickets for you. Perfectly legal. And it was a chance for you to use the internet for something other than complaining for once.
Not legal. Know the rules. “Powerball tickets can only legally be purchased at a state lottery sales terminal in the lottery jurisdictions that sells the Powerball game,” lottery officials said. “No one can sell lottery tickets by mail or over the internet across state lines or the U.S. national border.” Of course, that won’t stop scammers from trying to sell tickets to suckers like you. Only Georgia and Illinois allow online lottery sales and in each case, you have to be a resident of the state and physically present there when you make your purchase.
You’re not purchasing the ticket online. You’re having an agent go out and purchase the ticket for you, which has the same effect as having a relative in the mainland go out and buy the ticket for you. Nothing illegal about it.
good luck with that!
I wish we’d have just ONE politician run on a legalize a lottery, legalize marijuana, change to a right to work State and abolish the Jones Act campaign. Republicans, are you listening???
That candidate will get my and my family’s vote.
cholo likes! and possibly add couple more…. kill the rail, hoopili and koa ridge.
Congratulations to the winners! My brother bought me $20 worth .. I knew my chances were ZERO but still was fun to play and dream! Let’s get going Hawaii and get it legalized!
I did the dream thing but kept the double sawbuck in my wallet.
People opposed to lottery are the biggest grumblers when it comes to them having to pay taxes for everything. If we had a lottery, I think the state gets $1 of every $2 ticket sold. California uses 80 cents of each $2 ticket sold for education. If Hawaii got even $1 million from tickets sold, it’s $1 million less taxpayers would have to fork up. And, those opposed wouldn’t even have had to buy a single ticket. How you figgah?
Lottery gives the poor to dream. Dreams help give one a boost in life. A boost in life begets hope. Hope is good and the biggest winner, the reason to live.
And the Republicans want to give Wall Street the dream about busting the unions here in America.