Lucky Auburn resident wins $754.6M Powerball prize
Feb 7, 2023, 7:18 AM | Updated: 12:24 pm
FILE - Steve Morton shows his scan card for his personal selection numbers for a ticket for a Monday Powerball drawing on Nov. 7, 2022, at a convenience store in Renfrew, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)
Check your tickets. Somebody in Washington state won Monday night’s $754.6 million Powerball drawing.
The $754.6 million Powerball Jackpot from Monday’s drawing was sold at a Fred Meyer in Auburn, Washington’s Lottery announced Tuesday morning. Washington’s lottery officials were expected to release further information later Tuesday, including details of the outlet that sold the ticket.
Officials say this is the fifth-largest Powerball drawing since the game’s inception and the ninth-largest jackpot since the start of all lotteries in the United States.
What to do if you win the $1.9 billion Powerball jackpot
One thing not known late Monday was exactly where the winning ticket was sold in Washington state.
The numbers selected in the Monday, Feb. 6, 2023 drawing were 5-11-22-23-69 and Powerball 7.
The full jackpot is for a winner opting for an annuity distributed in one immediate but partial payout followed by additional payments over 29 years that increase by 5% annually. The winner also can opt for a one-time cash payment of $407.2 million.
Both prizes available are the amounts before taxes, Powerball said.
Just in case you’re interested, that’s slightly less than the $407.5 million former President Donald Trump paid to buy the Plaza Hotel in New York City back in 1988.
Monday night’s win was the first Powerball jackpot win since Nov. 19. That winless streak allowed the prize to grow larger and larger until it stood as the ninth-largest in U.S. history.
Higher interest rates have allowed annuity payments to increase compared with earlier jackpots when rates were lower. Most winners prefer the immediate cash prize.
The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes drawing more players. That strategy certainly has worked recently, as someone in Maine won a $1.35 billion Mega Millions prize in January, and a California player hit a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot last November. No one has claimed either of those prizes.
Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The jackpot for the next drawing scheduled for Wednesday is $20 million, according to the lottery’s website.
