Powerball jackpot hits $700 million as ticket sales surge after Christmas drawing
A lucky person who bought a lottery ticket in Orange County won what lottery officials dubbed a $2.08-million Christmas present.
The Powerball ticket, sold at the Donut Storr in Anaheim, matched five out of six numbers but missed the Powerball.
There were no jackpot winners in the Monday night drawing, so the jackpot rolled over and grew to an estimated $700 million for the next drawing on Wednesday night after strong ticket sales, lottery officials said.
It's the ninth-largest jackpot in Powerball history and the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed half a billion dollars this calendar year, according to a Powerball news release. The game's jackpot was previously won on Oct. 11, when a player in California won a $1.765-billion grand prize.
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There have since been 32 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, according to the news release.
Last year, an Altadena gas station sold a ticket for the largest Powerball jackpot in history: $2.04 billion. The winner who claimed the lump sum prize purchased a $25.5-million Hollywood Hills home and a $4-million Altadena mansion, both in March.
If a ticket matches all five numbers plus the Powerball on Wednesday, the winner will have the choice between a lump sum payment estimated at $352.3 million or an annuitized prize worth an estimated $700 million — both before taxes.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to officials.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
