$1.765B Powerball jackpot goes to California player
A player in California won a $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot Wednesday night, ending a long stretch without a winner of the top prize.
The winning numbers were: 22, 24, 40, 52, 64 and the Powerball 10. The winning ticket was sold at Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, according to the California Lottery.
Phone calls Wednesday night and Thursday morning to Midway Market & Liquor went unanswered. Frazier Park is an unincorporated mountain community of about 2,600 residents. It's about 75 miles north of Los Angeles.
“The phone's been ringing off the hook, people saying congratulations. Pretty crazy,” the store's night worker, identified only as Duke, told KCAL-TV.
“Somebody owes me a truck,” he said with a smile. “A lot of customers come in, you know they come in every day to get their tickets, religiously. And a lot of them ... said: `Oh, if I win I'm gonna get you a new truck.' So where's my truck? I'll be waiting.”
He expected the winner will be a local resident.
Before someone won the giant prize, there had been 35 consecutive drawings without a big winner, stretching back to July 19 when a player in California matched all six numbers and won $1.08 billion.
The jackpot is the world's second-largest lottery prize after rolling over for 36 consecutive drawings. That streak trails the record of 41 draws set in 2021 and 2022. Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier advertised estimate of $1.73 billion for Wednesday night's drawing.
The only top prize that was ever bigger was the $2.04 billion Powerball won by a player in California last November.
Powerball's terrible odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins. And wins in recent months have been few and far between.
That didn't bother those eager to plunk down their money on Wednesday for a long-shot chance at instant wealth.
Robert Salvato Jr., a 60-year-old electrician, bought 40 Powerball tickets at a hardware store in Billerica, Massachusetts.
“I would take care of family and give my cat that extra leg that she needs and make her a good kitty,” said Salvato, who got married on Saturday. “I could give her a ring on every finger, I guess,” Salvato said of his new wife.
Nevada is among the five states without Powerball, so friends Tamara Carter and Denise Davis drove from Las Vegas across the state line into California to buy tickets. But the line was so long at their first stop that they gave up and went in search of another store.