Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.5 billion but two Californians walk away millionaires
Two tickets in California came close to winning the $1.2-billion Powerball jackpot Wednesday night, matching five of the six numbers to earn more than $1 million each.
The Powerball jackpot jumped to $1.5 billion after no one won it, making it the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. The record is $1.586 billion, set in 2016 and shared by Powerball winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
In Wednesday’s drawing, the two California tickets got the first five numbers — 2, 11, 22, 35 and 60 — correctly but missed the Powerball number. The winning tickets are worth $1,044,212 each, and one was sold at the Eastland Food Mart in Ontario and the other at a 7-Eleven in Milpitas.
If one or both sports-wagering initiatives win approval on the November ballot, mental health experts anticipate more cases of problem gambling.
Across California, 962,544 partially winning tickets were sold, with payouts ranging from $4 to more than $20,000.
No one has won the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 3, when a ticketholder in Pennsylvania took home a $202-million prize. Since then, there have been 39 consecutive drawings without anyone matching all six numbers.
The Powerball jackpot varies depending on how many numbers a player correctly guesses. Guess all five numbers and the Powerball correctly, and the winner can opt to get paid annually over 29 years, or choose cash, which would be $745.9 million, if the jackpot is at $1.5 billion.
The next Powerball drawing is Saturday. Players looking to test their luck in California have until 7 p.m. Saturday to purchase tickets.
Here’s who has raised the most money for Propositions 26 and 27 and where it is coming from ahead of the 2022 California’s election.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
