What would you do with $1.2 billion? Powerball jackpot climbs after no big winners
There were no big winners in Monday’s Powerball drawing, clearing the way for a $1.2-billion jackpot on Wednesday.
That would mark the third-largest jackpot in Powerball history, officials announced Tuesday.
The last Powerball big winner was sold July 19 at Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles, on the edge of Skid Row in the Fashion District. The owners of the mom-and-pop tiendita said their clientele is made up of garment workers, mainly Latino immigrants, who work in the downtown core.
Flanked by fabric shops and stores displaying elaborate quinceañera dresses, a frenzy buzzed at the downtown Los Angeles store where the ticket to a $1-billion Powerball jackpot was sold.
The winner from that jackpot has not publicly come forward, but the market buzzed with activity the morning after the drawing. TV crews were situated on the narrow sidewalk outside the market where owner Maria Leticia Menjivar and her family discussed what they planned to do with their $1-million prize for selling the winning ticket.
“Some people are coming up to us saying, ‘Why aren’t you more excited?’ But I don’t really know how to feel,” Menjivar’s granddaughter Sarai Palacios said inside her family’s store as news cameras pointed at her mother and grandmother.
Since that winning ticket was sold, there have been 32 consecutive Powerball drawings with no big winners, according to the Multi-State Lottery Assn.
Powerball jackpot winner Edwin Castro dropped $25.5 million on a Hollywood Hills home shortly after winning the $2-billion lottery.
On Monday, more than 2.7 million tickets across the country won some prizes, including two tickets sold in Delaware and Michigan that matched the five white balls, but not the red Powerball number, and won $1 million dollars in prizes, the Multi-State Lottery Assn. said in a new release. Two other tickets sold in New York and South Carolina also matched five numbers, but because those ticket holders paid an extra $1, their prize total doubled to $2 million.
If someone wins Wednesday’s night jackpot, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize worth an estimated $1.2 billion or a lump sum payment estimated at $551.7 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
Powerball tickets are $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wednesday’s drawing will be broadcast at 7:59 p.m. PT.
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