DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.
The single ticket — revealed following a delay of more than three hours to the drawing — matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement.
The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.
The Oregon Lottery said the winning ticket was sold in Portland, Oregon.
“I want to congratulate the winner on this life changing moment, Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a statement. “No one in Oregon has ever won a prize on this scale, and it’s a very exciting for our staff and players.”
The statement said the winner has a year to claim the top prize. According to state law, players in Oregon, with few exceptions, cannot remain anonymous.
Previously the largest Powerball prize won in Oregon was a $340 million jackpot in 2005. The last Powerball jackpot win in Oregon was a $150.4 million prize claimed by a Salem man in 2018.
Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.
The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales, which can increase the chance that jackpots will be shared among multiple winners. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 292.2 million.
Saturday night’s scheduled drawing was held up and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., Powerball said in a statement.
“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement said. “This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball officials didn’t immediately say where the verification issue occurred.
It’s the second time a delay occurred in the drawing for a huge Powerball jackpot in the past 17 months.
In November 2022, the Powerball drawing for a record $2.04 billion, won by a single ticket sold in southern California, was pushed back by nearly 10 hours. The Minnesota Lottery announced later that there was a technical issue with its two-tiered verification process, which is operated by outside vendors.
The Associated Press
