The Powerball prize is the second billion-dollar jackpot in recent months. Come july 1st, an individual Mega Millions ticket sold in Des Plaines, Ill., won $1.34 billion. Previous billion-dollar jackpots were won in 2016, 2018 and 2021. Players can find a $2 Powerball ticket in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The five states that do not participate are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah. The California Lottery will spend the winning ticket after the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees the Powerball, collects earnings from each participating lottery and transfers it to California.
States oversee lottery operations and have different rules for how winnings are taxed and perhaps the names of the winners must certanly be made public. California law takes a winner's complete name along with the located area of the retailer who sold the winning ticket, the winning date and the winning amount, such as the gross and net installment payments, to be made public. Unlike other states, winners may not hide behind a trust when claiming their prize.
The California Lottery is needed to withhold 24 percent in federal taxes from the prize. The jackpot will soon be taxed at the greatest tax bracket — 37 percent — and the winner will lead to paying a supplementary 13 percent when filing income taxes. Their state doesn't tax lottery winnings. The drawing, originally scheduled for 10:59 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, have been delayed by a long time because among the 48 participating lotteries needed “extra time to accomplish the required security protocols,” Powerball said in a statement.
The increasing prevalence is clearly by design, experts say — and the odds of you actually winning a large jackpot are more than ever. Look at this: If nobody wins certain lottery draw, the jackpot money rolls over into the next draw, increasing the size of the pot. Make that lottery harder to win and you are able to almost guarantee higher jackpots on a typical basis, incentivizing even more individuals to buy lottery tickets.
Powerball's organizers have gradually made their lottery harder to win for decades, says Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross who studies lotteries. The greatest change came in 2015, once the lottery added more number combinations to nearly halve the odds of hitting the jackpot. Before then, your odds of winning a Powerball lottery were around 1 in 175 million, Matheson says. Today, those chances are 1 in 292.2 million.
After an overnight delay held up the drawing of the largest jackpot in American history on Monday, lottery officials in California said Tuesday a winning, $2 billion ticket was sold in Los Angeles County. The California Lottery said the “only winning” Powerball ticket was sold at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, a service station just north of Pasadena. Lottery officials said the ticket holder is now the first lottery billionaire in the state. No one has come forward to claim the prize yet.
Powerball officials announced the winning numbers on Tuesday morning: 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with another 10 since the Powerball. The video announcing the winning numbers did not address the delay. The winning ticket matched all six numbers. A lot more than 11.2 million tickets won cash prizes in the drawing, totaling $98.1 million. In every, 22 tickets around the world matched all five white balls to win a $1 million prize. One ticket in Florida won $2 million by matching all five white balls and the Power Play option. There have been also 225 tickets that won a $50,000 prize and another 42 tickets won a $100,000 prize.
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