Powerball: One ticket wins massive $232M Powerball lottery jackpot

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Update 1: May 28, 2009, 10:51 a.m.
Update 2: May 28, 2009, 11:22 a.m.

Someone is South Dakota has the one winning ticket in Wednesday night's $232.1 million Powerball jackpot.

The prize, originally estimated at $222 million, came in higher than expected due to heavy sales around the country.

Wednesday's winning Powerball numbers were 5, 6, 12, 16 and 21. The Powerball was 7 and the Power Play multiplier was 3.

"This is an absolute thrill," said Norm Lingle, executive director of the Lottery. "It's the ninth largest Powerball jackpot ever won."

Lingle advised that the winner should sign the back of the ticket immediately, put it in a safe place, and contact the Lottery at 605-773-5770 when the winner is ready to make arrangements to validate the ticket and claim the prize.

"The best advice we can give the winner is to take their time and get professional advice from an attorney and a financial advisor before claiming the prize," Lingle said.

The jackpot winner has 180 days to claim the jackpot, and will have the option of receiving the $232,100,000 jackpot in 30 graduated payments as a 29-year annuity or taking a one-time cash payment of $118,005,530. The winner will have 60 days to make that decision after the ticket is validated.

The ticket holder must present the ticket to the state lottery office in Pierre to be validated. Lingle said there is a multiple-step verification process to determine that the ticket presented is the actual winning ticket. "It isn't until we have completed the validation process that we will officially declare the winner," he said.

This is the third time the Powerball jackpot has been won in South Dakota since the Lottery began selling the game in April, 1992. "The Watertown 34" won $50.9 million on February 1, 2003, splitting a jackpot with a winner in Indiana (flashback – related story). Bill and Tina Nguyen of Pierre won a $116.8 million jackpot on May 17, 2006 (flashback).

Powerball is played in 30 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1:195,249,054.

In addition to the jackpot prize, 16 players came close to winning the big money, by matching five of the six winning numbers for a second-prize win of $200,000 dollars.  They were sold in the following states:  1 from Arizona, 1 from Colorado, 2 from Connecticut, 3 from Florida, 1 from Indiana, 1 from Kentucky, 1 from Minnesota, 1 from North Carolina, 3 from Pennsylvania, 1 from South Carolina, and 1 from Wisconsin.

Four of those second-prize winners will be taking home a $1 million prize because they purchased the Power Play option with their Powerball ticket.  They include the ticket sold in Arizona, both tickets sold in Connecticut, and the ticket sold in Kentucky.

In addition, 160 tickets matched the third prize for a $10,000 prize.  29 of those third-prize tickets were purchased with Power Play for a prize of $30,000.  Third prize is won by matching four of the first five numbers plus the Powerball.

The Powerball jackpot goes to an estimated $20 million for Saturday.