The Alberre family, whose store sold the winning ticket, pose for a picture by friend Monique Small.
A winning Powerball lottery ticket was bought in California this weekend, giving its own a grand prize worth an estimated $447.8 million. The ticket was sold in a convenience store in Menifee, a city southeast of Los Angeles.
The store in Menifee, California is called Marietta Liquor, a family-owned Mom-and-Pop convenience store. Matthew Alberre, who manages Marietta Liquor, told KCAL/KCBS he could not believe what he was hearing when he received a call from a Powerball lottery official.
Powerball Lottery Winning Numbers
The winning numbers were 20-26-32-38 and 58. The winning Powerball number was 3. The jackpot is the new 10th-largest on the list of the largest lottery prizes in world lotto history. Those prizes include the multi-state lottery associations, Mega Millions and Powerball.
The previous 10th-best lottery prize was from a ticket sold in Indiana this past February. The Indiana Powerball ticket was worth $435 million. In that case, the winner in question maintained their anonymity by collecting the prize through a corporation. It is legal and advisable to maintain one’s privacy, due to the wave of scammers, thieves, and borrowers who tend to follow a lotto win.
Biggest Powerball Lottery Jackpots Ever
Recent lotto winners tend to make the “Top Jackpot” lists, because of changes in the number of balls in the Powerball Lottery in October 2015. This makes it less likely for a winning ticket to be sold and thus produces fewer winners. This, in turn, leads to bigger jackpots when a winning ticket is sold. Six of the ten biggest Powerball jackpots have occurred since the beginning of 2016.
Prior to the October 2015 changes, the odds of winning the Powerball Lottery were 1 in 175 million. Now, the odds are 1 in 292 million, or around 0.0000003% chances of winning. A person has a better chance of being struck by lightning.
The largest prize pool ever was a $1.6 billion payout in July 2016. Though that was a large single amount paid out, it was not the largest jackpot. The public interest in a jackpot that paid out more than $1.5 billion was so great that four people bought the winning ticket, and thus the divided jackpot was smaller than previous lotto winners. Powerball lottery prizes topped the $400 million mark three other times in 2016, in May, July, and November.
Mega Millions Jackpot Prizes
The Mega Millions multistate jackpot has exceeded $400 million only 4 times. Though the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 259 million, roughly similar to the Powerball Lottery, Mega Millions tickets cost half as much as a basic Powerball ticket, so the prize pool increases at a lower rate.
Still, the Mega Millions Lottery’s jackpots has creeped up beyond the half-billion dollar range. In 2016, the biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever, $536 million, occurred. Unlike the highest Powerball drawing, only one winner claimed the big prize.
The posted total prize of $447.8 million is a bit of an exaggeration. That total assumes the player accepts the 29-year annuity payout, which includes 30 overall annual lotto payments (one now, one more for each of the next 29 years). If players take lump sum payout, then the prize paid is much smaller, as it does not include what the interest the lottery company makes by holding off for the annuity payments.
Powerball Lottery: Fantastical Wealth
Whatever the final sum will be, the person holding the Marietta Liquor Powerball Lottery ticket should be fantastically wealthy. Players who win the lottery should take a number of precautions, to assure they enjoy their lottery winnings.
Those precautions include choosing to remain anonymous, getting a new phone number, and a new mailing address (a P.O. box). The person also should speak to a financial adviser and an accountant, so they can plan for a sensible strategy. Finally, do not make a bunch of major purchases in the first rush of wealth. Experts suggest making one major purchase if one must, but withholding on major purchases until the thrill of the lotto win subsides (a bit).
Update on Lottery Winner
As of June 13, no lottery winner has appeared with the $447.8 million Powerball winning ticket. Still, some of the prize money has been handed out. The Los Angeles Times reported that the owners of the Marietta Liquor Store received $1 million for selling the lottery ticket, which is the standard payout for a vendor which sells a winning lottery ticket. Lina Alberre and her son, Matthew Alberre, were on-hand to accept the check for the prize money from the Powerball Lottery officials.
