$25K check given to market with winning Powerball ticket

The winning Florida ticket was sold at a Publix grocery store in Melbourne Beach.

Seven more tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Powerball and are worth $50,000 apiece, lottery officials said. In that regard, each of the winners is extra lucky, because none will have to pay income taxes to their states.

But calculating their actual winnings isn’t easy as dividing by three. Winning Powerball tickets were sold in Florida, Tennessee and the Californian town of Chino Hills, according to the California Lottery Association. Many chanted, “Chino Hills!”

The jackpot, which had stood at US$1.5 billion for much of the day, eventually crept up to almost US$1.59 billion, a record in the United States lottery industry.

The tickets that defied the odds of 1 in 292 million and matched the winning numbers were sold in Chino Hills, California; Munford, Tennessee; and in Melbourne Beach, Florida.

The most benefited is the 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California.

Chino Hills has 78,000 residents and Mayor Art Bennett describes the city as a rural-style suburb where cows can be seen grazing on hillsides.

There were at least three winners for the record-shattering $1.5 billion jackpot.

“I was just joking, I said, this is the time someone’s going to hit it”, laughed Atwal.

“I’m very proud that the ticket was sold here”, the clerk, M. Faroqui, told the local San Bernardino Sun.

With each state setting its own lottery rules, the Tennessee retailer, located in a Memphis suburb, received $25,000 and the Florida retailer, located in a tiny coastal town, will get $100,000 at an undetermined date, lottery officials said. Hundreds of people, from news crews to gawkers, crowded the store and spilled into its parking lot.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

There are also a few Oklahomans who won smaller – yet large – sums of cash from the Powerball lottery.

This Powerball’s winners’ identities had not been announced by Thursday morning.

Despite the jackpot reaching into the billions, Lottery officials stated that the lump-sum cash value of the jackpot is valued at $930 million, which leaves each lucky victor with about $310 million each.

MUNFORD, Tenn. (AP) – If they’re wise, the three mystery winners of the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot will talk seriously with experts in tax law, financial planning, privacy, security and other safeguards before they become known around the planet.

The world’s biggest lotto jackpot will be split three ways. “I’m hearing anecdotally and through news outlets, millions of people who have never played Powerball before are indeed purchasing a ticket”.

The tickets matching all numbers – 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10 – were sold in Florida, Tennessee and Southern California.