$1.6 Billion Powerball Jackpot: What we know about the 3 winners – The mystery winners of America’s world-record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot have suddenly become famous across the globe.
The lucky trio did not immediately identify themselves, but they purchased their tickets in the small working class town of Munford, Tennessee; in the quiet Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills; and at a supermarket in rich Melbourne Beach, on Florida’s Space Coast.
They fought the odds of 1 in 292.2 million to land on all the numbers: 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10. To prevent their winnings from being invested, they must collect 30 annual payments totaling an estimated $533 million, or take their third of $983.5 million in cash all at once.
For Wednesday night’s drawing alone, Powerball sales summed up to $1,270,206,274. People were purchasing 37,000 Powerball tickets a minute in California, where $386 million in Powerball tickets were retailed since Nov. 4, the greatest of any state and more than California sold in the entire previous fiscal year, spokesman Russ Lopez said.
A big part of the profits go to schools, although not enough to solve all their economy problems, officials said.
According to Florida Lottery Secretary Tom Delacenserie, transactions for this jackpot produced nearly $115 million since November for education in Florida, which uses the lottery to fund 6 percent of the education budget.