Winning Tickets Were Sold in Texas, North Carolina, and Ponce, Puerto Rico
The 5th-largest Powerball lottery jackpot went to 3 different winners, with one winner apiece in Texas, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. The The drawing for Wednesday, February 11th was for a jackpot of $564 million.
Of course, the payout is never as much if you choose the lump sum amount, which most people do. The estimated cash value for a lump sum payment of the lottery was $337,800,000. Under the circumstances, each winner will receive $112,600,000–part of a three-way payout.
Winners Receive $100 Million Plus Apiece
Though none of the winners will receive the full jackpot amount, none are likely to complain out their $100 million-plus payday, after taxes. It has not been announced which cities or businesses sold the winning tickets in the two southern US states or the US overseas territory. People who bought tickets in those states need to verify with their ticket whether they won or not.
The winning numbers for the Powerball drawing for Feb. 11 were 15, 21, 35, 46, and 53. The Powerball number was 28. For those who did not win the top jackpot amount, the Powerplay number was 3x. That means any lesser jackpots are tripled in size.
Free Publicity for the Lotto
All in all, the Top 5 lotto payout amount in history got a lot of attention for the Powerball lottery, as it always does. Top American newspapers like the Washington Post even printed how-to guides to the Powerball drawing such as “How to Win the Powerball Jackpot“.
How to Win the Powerball Lottery
The advice in that column might have been tongue-in-cheek, such as having Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson calculate the odds on a break-even lottery play. Anderson’s conclusion was gamblers should only play when the jackpot reaches $350 million, because that’s when the lotto becomes a positive expectation game.
Even better advice might have been to treat it like a game, not an investment opportunity–or to avoid the numbers everyone else will be playing (to avoid splitting the jackpot). For instance, it was suggested that common lucky numbers like 7, 13, and 21 be avoided. Unfortunately, the number 13 was one of the winning jackpot numbers, so that advice wouldn’t have worked out well in this particular drawing. Besides, people aren’t likely to be too concerned about “only” receive a hundred million dollars.
Puerto Rico Winning Ticket
In Puerto Rico, someone bought their winning ticket at a Shell gas station in the coastal city of Ponce. The cashier on duty at the time the word arrived said she was starting at her shift at the 24-hour convenience store when the lottery machine started ringing, alerting the store that the winning ticket had been purchased there.
The cashier said, “I couldn’t believe it! We’re celebrating.”
Antonio Perez Lopez, assistant secretary of the Puerto Rico Lottery, was equally exited. He told the Associated Press, “We are beyond thrilled with the news that we already have a multimillion-dollar winner just four months after Puerto Rico began selling Powerball tickets.”
After only four months selling lotto tickets, Puerto Rico received one of the biggest prizes in the history of lottery gaming. Mr. Perez Lopez says that the winner can pick up their money as early as Friday. The winner will receive either a lump sum payout of $101.6 million, or they can choose 30 payments over 29 years for a greater amount.
No word has reached the national media yet about the winners in Texas and North Carolina. In all three cases, the winners will receive life-changing sums of money. We can all hope they take care of their families and retain their good sense (and money) for the remainder of their lives.
