The jackpot is the fifth-largest in Powerball history and the ninth-largest in US lottery history. According to authorities, someone in Washington state has won the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot in history – $754.6 million – and the ninth-largest US lottery payout ever.
The Powerball player who had the solitary ticket that matched all of the winning numbers in Monday night’s drawing has not been named publicly. However, that individual might choose to receive the entire reward as an annuity over 29 years or as a lump payment of $407.2 million in cash paid immediately.
According to Powerball organisers, historically, winners prefer the lump payment. Federal taxes are levied on the dividend, lowering it by more than a third. Lottery winnings are taxed in many states, but not in Washington.
The Powerball jackpot was won for the first time in 2023 on Monday’s drawing, which is played in 45 American states, the nation’s capital, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. It had been 34 draws and more than 11 weeks since the last Powerball jackpot, which was won by a ticket in Kansas on November 19th for $92.9 million.
Eight days earlier, a Powerball ticket holder in California won the world’s greatest lottery prize of $2.04 billion. Only four other Powerball prizes have surpassed $1 billion. The winner of November’s record-breaking Powerball jackpot has yet to be publicly revealed. That award has nothing to do with the $1.334 billion Mega Millions lottery jackpot won in September, which also received a lot of attention.
On Monday, the winning numbers were 5, 11, 22, 23, 69, and the red ball – or Powerball – 7. According to the Associated Press, the overall odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million, which is approximately the same as flipping a coin and obtaining the exact same outcome (heads or tails) 28 times in a row.
For example, the odds of dating a supermodel are around 1 in 88,000, according to Gregory Baer, author of Life: The Odds. According to the National Weather Service, those who live for around 80 years have a 1 in 12,000 chance of getting hit by lightning in their lifetime.
Because of the long chances of winning the Powerball jackpot, it is not uncommon for no one to win until a higher jackpot attracts an increasing number of participants. On Monday, this meant that some Powerball players who missed the jackpot by heartbreakingly small margins nonetheless won quite large sums of money.
Two Michigan tickets and three New York tickets matched all five white balls to win a $1 million prize. In Texas, a Powerball ticket with a little extra price known as a Power Play option matched all five white balls to win a $2 million prize. Juliette Lamour, a jackpot winner in Canada, made headlines lately when she won $48 million after purchasing her first lottery ticket at the age of 18.
Lamour, who found out about her prize on January 7, allegedly informed the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation that she intends to utilize her windfall to travel and attend medical school without incurring debt. “I can’t believe I won on my first lotto ticket,” Lamour remarked. “I’d like to return to this place as a doctor and give back to my community.”