A US lottery winner has scooped a $1.3bn jackpot that had rolled over for more than three months.
The Powerball jackpot is the eighth largest lottery prize in US history and the sole winner – whose identity has not been revealed – will have it paid out over 30 years if they choose to receive the full amount in instalments.
If they opt for it in cash, they will receive $608.9m (£481.8m).
The $1.3bn (£1bn) prize was scooped by a ticketholder from Oregon who matched all six numbers – which were announced early on Sunday morning as 22, 27, 44, 52 and 69, while the red Powerball was 9.
US lottery prizes are subject to federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery winnings.
Until the latest draw, no-one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.
As the prizes grow, the draws attract more ticket sales and the jackpots subsequently become harder to win. The game’s long odds for the draw were one in 292.2 million.
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
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The eye-watering sum means the winner could purchase a fleet of Gulfstream G550 private jets with plenty of millions to spare – with Business Jet Traveller reporting the planes cost around $48m (£38m).
If they wanted to purchase a flotilla of Northrop and Johnson yachts, they could so do quite comfortably – with the luxury vessels costing around $135m (£107m) each.
They would also have enough to purchase a struggling Premier League football side – with Southampton FC bought for $126m (£100m) in January 2022 before they were relegated from the top flight.
However, they would need to win the Powerball rollover jackpot many more times to follow in Elon Musk’s footsteps – with the tech billionaire buying X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44bn (£38bn) in 2022.
Source : Sky News
