Powerball player wins $2 billion after excruciating delay
A Powerball player suffered through a tense three-hour delay before claiming a $2 billion jackpot on the weekend.
Worth the wait! A Powerball jackpot-winning ticket worth $2 billion (AUD) was sold in the US after Saturday night’s drawing was pushed back more than three hours due to “pre-draw procedures”.
The winning numbers were 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.
The lucky winning ticket holder can choose between the $2 billion prize paid over 29 years or the one-time lump sum of $944 million.
The win was the fourth largest in the game’s history and only the sixth lucky player from Oregon to go home with Powerball’s grand prize, the last time occurring in June 2018, according to the state’s lottery website.
It was not immediately known where the lucky ticket was purchased from, or who the winner was.
Oregon law requires lottery winner’s names to be revealed.
The new billionaire has 60 days to claim their winnings.
The results of the massive win were delayed several hours due to a participating lottery needing “additional time to complete required pre-draw procedures, which have been enacted to protect the security and integrity of the Powerball game”.
Every single ticket sold nationwide must be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the numbers are drawn, Powerball said.
Australian company The Lottery Office reported a surge in sales of its USA Power Lotto, which is directly linked to the US Powerball. Aussies have a chance to win massive overseas jackpots by entering the company’s locally run lotteries and having a matching ticket in the relevant overseas draw purchased on their behalf.
“There was a lot of excitement and we had really strong demand for the USA Power Lotto,” chief executive Jaclyn Wood said.
“We have our fingers crossed that an Aussie will win one of these mind-blowin gprizes in an upcoming draw.”
The drawing took place around Sunday 2.30am instead of the typical Saturday 11pm timeslot. The delay sparked outrage on social media with players speculating the lottery was cheating.
However, it isn’t the first time the lottery’s drawing was delayed before an eventual billion-dollar winner.
In November 2022, Powerball’s drawing was delayed for 10 hours, not occurring until the next morning, according to USA Today.
Eventual winner Edwin Castro’s numbers were called and he became the largest winner in the lottery’s history with his $3.1 billion prize.
It takes the astronomical odds of 1 in 292,201,338 to win the Powerball grand prize.
The Powerball jackpot was last won on January 1 at a Michigan supermarket and went 40 consecutive drawings without a winner.
A lucky lottery player in Michigan correctly matched all six numbers on the first day of the new year, winning the $1.3 billion grand prize.
The winner played at the Food Castle grocery store in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and was the first person in the game’s history to win the Powerball jackpot on New Year’s Day.
It was the eighth-largest jackpot in history at the time of the winning.
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
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