A player in California on Wednesday night won a $1.73 billion Powerball jackpot which ended a long stretch without a winner of the top prize.
According to the California Lottery, 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.
Africa Today News, New York reports that 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, since the last time someone won the top prize on July 19. That streak trails the record of 41 draws set in 2021 and 2022.
The only top prize that was ever bigger was the $2.04 billion Powerball won by a player in California last November.
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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.
‘The line was about three hours long,’ Carter estimated. ‘I was waiting for maybe a half hour, and it didn’t move.’
The jackpot has grown enormous due to a long dry spell. The previous winning Powerball ticket was sold on July 19, and it was worth $1.08 billion after 39 drawings without a jackpot win.