An American can probably claim to be the luckiest person in the world after winning a record-breaking US$2.04 billion Powerball prize pool.
The gigantic sum, which is equivalent to approximately C$2.75 billion, was won thanks to a ticket purchased at Joe’s Service garage in Altadena, near Los Angeles, California. The winning combination is 10-33-41-47-56 and Powerball 10.
Lottery California, which operates lottery draws in that state, rejoiced to have made its first billionaire.
“We only California had its first big Powerball winner, but three other tickets also had the five-figure combination, minus the Powerball, in Gardena, Baumont and San Francisco.
However, the lucky winner will see his lot melt away quickly. He will first have to choose between taking the full jackpot of 2.04 billion over a period of 30 years, or settling for an immediate sum of US$997.6 million. This amount will also be reduced by a federal tax of 25%. On the other hand, the lucky winner is in California, a state that does not levy tax on lottery winnings.
The Powerball prize pool had been steadily growing since August 3, when it was last won.
Winning the Powerball jackpot requires getting the right combination from a series of five numbers ranging from 1 to 69, followed by the Powerball drawn from numbers ranging from 1 to 26. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338. In other words, a person is 292 times more likely to be struck by lightning (1 in 1 million) than to win the Powerball if he plays it only once in his life.
With the jackpot won, the prize pool was reduced to US$20 million. The next draw will take place on Wednesday.
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With $2.75 billion, we can…:
- To pay a little more than 300 million Big Macs
- Buy more than 130,000 Toyota Corolla, the most popular car in Quebec last year
- Acquire approximately 35 Global 7500s, Bombardier’s most luxurious business jet
- Cover the entire budget of the City of Quebec ($1.65 billion in 2022) for 1 year and 8 months
- Fund nearly half of the blue line extension ($6.4 billion)
- Exceed the GDP of the state and archipelago of Tuvalu (63.1 million $US in 2021), that of the Comoros (1.32 billion $US), or even that of Guinea-Bissau (1.64 billion $US) .