One Tuesday morning, a lone winning ticket bought in Altadena, California, won the record $2.04 billion Powerball lottery jackpot.

Last Updated: July 8, 2023

On Tuesday morning, a lone winning ticket bought in Altadena, California, won the record $2.04 billion Powerball lottery jackpot. The Tuesday win made the ticket holder the winner of the largest lottery prize so far.

According to the California Lottery’s message on Twitter, the winner bought the ticket at Joe’s Service Center. The announcement matched the results on Powerball.com, which stated that there was one winner only. The winner matched all the six numbers in California.

The odds of matching all six numbers are 1 in 292.2 million. The announcement, which was made on Tuesday morning, was actually supposed to happen on Monday night.

Powerball CA Lottery

Powerball Lottery Delay

However, there was a delay in the drawing. The Multi-State Lottery Association said the cause was a technical issue. And it was caused by one state which needed additional time to process its play data and sales. That one state is Minnesota.

Minnesota Lottery

The Minnesota Lottery said its sales verification system caused the delay. That forced them to request a postponement of the draw. They added that the delay was necessary to safeguard the integrity of the draw. They concluded by saying the process was never compromised the entire time.

Multi-State Lottery Association

While issuing an overnight statement, the Multi-State Lottery Association said that all states must issue their sales and plays before the draw can start. And with such stringent requirements, all players get a fair chance to win.

On Tuesday morning, just before the draw, the association made a follow-up statement. It said that, as everyone else, the association was eager to hold the draw. But the game’s integrity is of utmost importance, even a further delay if necessary.

Powerball Lottery Draw

As per the association’s announcement, the winning numbers were 10-33-41-47-56, while the Powerball was 10. Moreover, the association is urging players to check their tickets for other prizes. Even though there was only one jackpot winner, a ticket holder may have won other small prizes.

The Multi-State Lottery Association says over 11.2 million tickets won small cash prizes. The smaller prizes amounted to $98.1 million. That included the 22 tickets that bagged $1 million prizes for correctly predicting the five white numbers.

However, none of those 22 tickets matched the final red Powerball number.

How the Jackpot Grew to $2 Billion

As of the night of November 7, 2022, the jackpot record was expected to be $1.9 billion. However, it surpassed $2 billion by the time the delayed drawing happened. The association held the draw at 8:57 a.m. ET, on Tuesday morning, in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Powerball jackpot grew over a period of three months after it started at $20 million on August 6. The odds of drawing a winning number were at 1 in 292.2 million. And each Powerball lottery ticket costs $2. After each win, the Powerball jackpot resets back to $20 million.

The previous Powerball jackpot win was $206.9 million. The winning ticket for that one was sold in Pennsylvania.

The payout option the winner takes determines the actual jackpot amount they will receive. If they choose a lump sum cash payout, they will get a pre-tax lump sum of $997.6 million. To get the entire pretax $2.04 billion, they need to select annuity payouts.

The association spreads out annuity payouts over 29 years. However, most jackpot winners choose the cash option.

Federal Taxes on Winnings

All winners have to pay IRS taxes. The federal rate ranges from 24% to 37% of the winnings. In the case of $997.6 million, the winner will pay a minimum of $239.4 million in taxes.

Winners can also reduce their taxes by donating a significant amount of their winnings to charity. Moreover, since this is a huge win, they can use the entire amount to start a private foundation. In that case, they will not pay any federal taxes on the lump sum.

However, the foundation’s income will pay a federal excise tax of 1.39 percent. Furthermore, each year, the foundation must issue grants worth 5% of its investment assets. The winner can then be an employee of the foundation and receive a fair wage.

Apart from federal taxes, the winner may also pay state and local taxes.

State Taxes on Lottery Winnings

California Powerball Lottery winnings

California residents do not need to pay tax lottery winnings. That is according to California’s lottery winner’s handbook. So if the lucky winner is a resident in the Golden State, they won’t have to worry about local or state taxes on their windfall.

Other Powerball Lottery States

Residents of the other 44 participating states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have to pay additional taxes. In addition, depending on the state or territory, those can be zero to 10%.

Overall, the Powerball lottery winner may have to pay taxes at the federal, state, or local government levels.

On a side note, California are also not one of the states where lottery winners can remain anonymous.

Other Powerball $2.04 billion Beneficiaries

The Powerball $2.04 billion win is the first one to make someone a technical billionaire in California. And CA Lottery officials are happy for the winner. They have advised them to make a point of getting legal and financial advice before they claim their prize. And to keep the ticket safe.

The Store Owners

Joe and Danny Chahayed are the owners of the store where the winner bought the ticket. And they have owned that store for the past 20 years. As per Powerball Lottery policy, the store will get a $1 million bonus for selling the winning ticket.

During a morning news conference at the store, Joe Sr. said he plans to share their prize money. He will share it with his family and his 11 grandchildren. He added that he hoped the winner was from the neighborhood. Chahayed came from Syria in 1980 with his wife and two children.

The State Beneficiaries

California’s public schools will also benefit from the win. The draw yielded $156 million for state schools. A lottery official made an announcement about it during the news conference at Joe’s Service Center. However, analysts say the gains for schools from the lottery are minimal.

For instance, the gigantic jackpots have pushed lottery revenues into billions. However, the contributions to schools have not changed in the past 12 years.