ALTADENA, California, Nov. 8 (UPI) — A winning ticket for Monday’s record-setting $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot was sold in California, state lottery officials say.
The winning numbers were drawn after a delay caused by security and technical issues while processing a flood of ticket sales in one of the state lotteries.
The numbers drawn on Tuesday morning at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56 for the white balls and 10 for the red Powerball.
The California Lottery confirmed on its Twitter account that a winning ticket was sold.
“California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire! One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw,” the California Lottery tweeted.
Prior to Tuesday’s drawing, officials issued a statement urging customers to keep their tickets and watch for an announcement later in the day on Powerball.com.
The Powerball jackpot was estimated at 1.9 billion prior to being adjusted to $2.04 billion on Tuesday.
The highly-unusual interruption arose due to “a participating lottery needing extra time to complete the required security protocols,” said a statement from the Multi-State Lottery Association. “Powerball has strict security requirements that must be met by all 48 lotteries before a drawing can occur.”
The statement stopped short of naming the participating lottery that caused the delay.
The record-setting prize grew to become the largest-ever in U.S. lottery history last Saturday when no one hit all six numbers in the $1.5 billion drawing. This sent the jackpot soaring to $1.9 billion ahead of Monday’s drawing.
Droves of people have been lining up at stores nationwide for a chance to win, the odds of which stand at 1 in 292.2 million.
A lottery prize has eclipsed the $1 billion mark four other times in U.S. history, with the latest colossal jackpot standing to become the largest prize ever.
The previous record for a lottery prize was $1.586 billion claimed by three Powerball winners in 2016. One person in South Carolina picked the winning Mega Millions numbers in October 2018 and won $1.537 billion; in 2021, a Mega Millions ticket sold in Michigan hit for $1.05 billion. And this past July, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot surged to $1 billion after 29 straight draws without a winner.
The current Powerball game has gone more than three months without a first-prize winner, with Monday becoming the 41st consecutive drawing since someone last hit all six numbers on Aug. 3.
The next drawing will be Wednesday and the jackpot will continue to roll over to a larger amount until someone eventually wins.
Tickets cost $2 and the numbers are drawn at 10:59 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Lottery winners typically end up with a bigger share of the money by electing to take regular cash payouts over the course of 30 years, but would come out with far less if taking a lump sum payout all at once.
So far no one has come forward with a winning ticket.
