Southern California Powerball player wins record prize of $2.04 billion

A Powerball draw on Tuesday morning has made a Southern Californian player a billionaire, with a record $2.04 billion prize. The winning numbers were drawn at the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee, and were: White balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56; and the red Powerball was 10. The draw comes after more than three months without anyone hitting the top prize.

The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, an unincorporated community in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles. The jackpot was by far the largest lottery prize ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize won by three Powerball ticket holders in 2016. 

The #Powerball numbers for Monday's drawing were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56 with Powerball 10

Check your tickets now at 👉 https://t.co/v9q3NiyjFE pic.twitter.com/raNqEugqQD

— Powerball USA (@PowerballUSA) November 8, 2022

Only four previous jackpots have topped $1 billion. However, none of those are close to the current prize, which started at $20 million back on August 6 but grew massive after months without a winner. The jackpot was initially reported as an estimated $1.9 billion on Monday, but it was increased to $2.04 billion Tuesday morning after updated calculations.

The Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday night’s scheduled drawing was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating lottery had issues processing sales. 

🚨 Monday's (November 7th) #Powerball drawing remains delayed while one of the participating lotteries processes sales data.

Once all the requirements have been met, the draw will take place and winning numbers will be published at https://t.co/z70w2MOMxY

— Powerball USA (@PowerballUSA) November 8, 2022

As reported by KSLTV, Drew Svitko, chairman of the Powerball Product Group and executive director of the Pennsylvania Lottery, said that protecting the draw’s integrity is “of the utmost importance," and assured that they were able to do so during this historic drawing with the cooperation of all participating lotteries. 

Former director of the Iowa Lottery, Terry Rich, who also served on the Powerball board, commented that the delay was likely due to a two-part verification system of ticket sales that uses an outside vendor to ensure all is in order before the game’s numbers are drawn. 

“Each state must verify through a dual process that all of the sales and dollars match before the Multi-State Lottery Association can do the draw. This is a state-by-state procedure, which separates the whole process and has been very effective,” he explained, as reported by Associated Press.  

He also said state lotteries deal with similar problems several times a year but the delays usually do not attract much attention because the potential jackpots are far less than was up for grabs this week.