California Lottery participants maintain victorious run, scoop up $1B Powerball prize
The California Lottery proves its fortune yet again! A victorious ticket, sold in California, managed to beat the one in 292.2 million odds to seize a mind-blowing prize of more than $1 billion in the recent Powerball draw.
Powerball hadn't seen its jackpot being claimed since April 19, so it escalated to over $1 billion for Wednesday night's extraordinary event. This means the jackpot had rolled over an astonishing 38 times!
Powerball officials confirmed on Thursday morning that a singular ticket had perfectly matched the six winning numbers - 7, 10, 11, 13, 24, and the red Powerball 24 - to acquire the monumental jackpot of $1.08 billion. The advertised grand prize refers to the sum the winners would win if they accept the 30-year-long annuity payout. The anonymised cash value is worth a hefty $558.1 million. Both amounts are without federal taxes.
Celebrating the new Powerball jackpot victor and the California Lottery, Drew Svitko, Powerball Product Group chairman and the executive director of the Pennsylvania Lottery, exulted, "Our heartiest congratulations go out to the winner and the California Lottery!"
He added, "Powerball has embarked on a 30-year journey of giving millions of lottery players the potential to win big, fulfilling their dreams. It's raised billions of dollars for extraordinary good causes aided by lotteries. A portion of every Powerball ticket sold during the current jackpot chase - including California - will aid in furthering this legacy of supporting public programs and services within your community."
California's Phenomenal Fortune
California, with its population of over 39.5 million, has nine million more people than any other state. As a result, more lottery winners emerge from this state than any other lottery market. Yet, it's not just the numbers that have fortuitously gone in favor of California lottery players lately.
Wednesday night's astonishing $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot ranks among the top six-largest prizes in U.S. history. Incredibly, three of these mega-prizes have ended up in the hands of Californian lottery players.
A California resident won the astounding $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot back in November, and was among the three lucky winners of the $1.586 billion jackpot in January 2016.
For Wednesday's draw, two additional California-based tickets matched the five white balls but not the red Powerball, winning each a consolation prize of $1 million.
Fortunately for California lottery players, their prizes are exempt from state taxes. The Golden State is one of the nine states where lottery winnings don't get taxed.
The winner can either select the annuitized payout of $22.7 million three times a year for three decades or opt for the one-off cash payment of about $351.6 million, faced with a federal tax bill of approximately $206.4 million.
Higher Bonds, Larger Jackpots
Bond interest rates have been a key role player in powering up Powerball and Mega Millions' advertised annuity jackpots. Given that the annuity prizes are calculated based on U.S. Treasury bonds, their growth is surpassing projections.
For example, the $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in early 2021 had a considerably higher cash option of $776.6 million. Moreover, with the federal interest rates virtually stationary at the time, the annuity jackpot was only around $274 million richer than the cash pool.
Currently, the Federal Reserve base interest rate totals to roughly 5%. The higher rates will probably trigger lottery winners reconsidering the 30-year annuity plans, as they will significantly increase the overall profit. In the recent past, nearly all major winners have opted for the cash option.
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Source: www.casino.org
