SAN MATEO, Calif. — Someone in the Bay Area could be $228.5 million richer after lottery officials announced Wednesday that the sole winning Powerball ticket was sold in San Mateo, California.
The winning ticket was sold at Key Markets, located at 500 S. Norfolk St., a spokesman for the agency said.
Lottery officials said it was the sole winning ticket sold in the 44 states that carry Powerball.
The winning numbers were 7, 14, 21, 24, and 41, with Powerball number 26. The lump-sum jackpot would be about $136 million, lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said; federal taxes would take about another 25 percent of that amount.
The store's owners will receive $1 million for selling the winning ticket, Traverso said.
The store is a family-run business with one other location in Redwood City.
Lottery officials called store owners Nancy and Jack Dehoff around 9 p.m. to tell them they had sold the winning ticket, but "of course we didn't believe them," Nancy Dehoff said. They were convinced about a half-hour later, when calls from reporters started coming in.
What will the family do with their million-dollar payout? "Oh, I don't know," said son Chris Dehoff, the store's general manager. "We certainly weren't expecting this."
"The Bay Area is kind of a hot spot right now," Traverso said. "This would be the third winner in the past year that has hit it big."
In April, B. Raymond Buxton, bought the sole winning ticket for a $425 million Powerball jackpot at a Chevron station off Dixon Landing Road in Milpitas.
In December, a delivery driver named Steve Tran bought a winning Mega Millions ticket from an East San Jose gift shop.
To say the Powerball lottery drawing in California has been a success is an understatement, according to Traverso.
"It's turned out to be one of those things where it's better than we could have possibly imagined," he said.
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Congratulations to the winner (s)
What is going on with Calif. winning so much?
All the numbers I play are under 41, I got one number last night.
PB and MM are rigged for Cali and NY. I've posted this several times and people have mocked me, but lo and behold look what happens here.
It's a shame you guys still spend money on PB and MM when only two states are programmed to win jackpots. But I guess every industry needs its rubes.
Congratulation to the winner/s.
Yeah right
Go Kidding!!I know there is no conspiracy, but the percentage of powerball wins for California vs other states just seem odd or out of whack.
If I move to California (snowball chance in hell) then I'll start playing powerball again.
Hearty congratulations to the winner (s)!! And my condolences to the sourpusses....
No congrats here since it's California that won.
I hope they get the "lottery curse" and become another David Lee Edwards.
Well well well, don't say I didn't tell some of you so.
Still believe in that so called "logic" ?
Congratulations to the winner or winners. If they are smart they will wait a month or more. Keep the secret to themselves or within a close nit family. Hire an attorney, maybe a tax attorney . Plus a media guru. And someone to handle all the requests for money from strangers.
California again i know something is not right here all the big pb have been won in california and Mg too.. will only play the MG
I'm going to quit playing too... from here on out I'm only buying PB tickets on Wed and Sat- screw California!
I know right! I'm telling you, something is odd about this. Even if someone here in Ga. could win a jackpot that large it's shared with either California or NY. If a sole winner wins, it's a jackpot not over $70 million.
Congrats winners! No need to be salty :p
The numbers that what drawn tho, so similar to the multiples of 7!!
(7, 14, 21, then stops. Goes 24, then 41)
7 and permutations of 7 look really lucky. Wonder of it was a QP?
I was wondering if it's QP too. If it is, all the more reason to think it's shady.
I am another person who is annoyed that California is winning so many (too many??) of the Powerball jackpots. My husband says it is because they are buying so many of the tickets compared to other states, but I don't agree with him.
Maybe I should try to find someone in California to buy and then mail tickets to me.
Cali is just getting lucky. Maybe there is a higher percentage of buyers over there, compared to other states.
Who knows? One thing I do know, I refuse to believe it's a conspiracy. That's just ridiculous and petty.
California buys 10% of the tickets. Someone do the math on percent of jackpots they've won over x years.
There's too much at stake for PB and MM to be rigged folks and if it was it would be far too complicated to regularly pull something like that off on games at this scale.
The odds are astronomical... throw some randomness into the mix and it will make your head spin even if you can grasp the math.
California is just reaping the benefits of a large player/population base- period.
But anyway, people will believe what they want to believe...
I believe California, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey along with Florida will continue to win many large Jackpots...
I would bet on that... too bad there wasn't a payout for that...
A state that buys 7-10% of the tickets, wins far more than 10% of the jackpots (when they are in the game - see Powerball starting in April 2013 and on or Mega Millions).
*facepalm* More BS conspiracy theories about California always winning? Okay, let me put it to you this way:
Person: Darnit, California wins again. I'm gonna stop playing.
Same Person when jackpot grows $100m+: I got my numbers already!
Had a feeling it was over when i saw those numbers. Just surprised it hasn't cracked 300mill since February.
Congratulation to the WINNER/S AND THE STORE OWNER/s! CA HERE I COME!!!!!!!
You going about this the wrong way- what about all the "other" Californians that did not win? It was ONE Californian winner. By the way Californians do more than their fair share of making these jackpots rise.
BTW- l did predict that the winner would be from N California.
..now if only l can get my numbers to align themselves in the correct sequence.On a side note,you can mail your money to me, l will collect it at no charge.
Congratulations to the Winner/Winners.
Not Cali. Northern Cali. The powerball is always won up there. The powerball never lands in San Diego. If anything Los Angeles and up always get rained with the big pot.
That's it, it's rigged. It's a conspiracy man, I'm telling you.
The gov. did it.
10-23-2013 was the first winner from California...2-19-2014 winner in California....3-1-2014 winner in California....7-19-2014 winner in California... and last but not least 9-24-2014 winner...California joined on APRIL 8, 2013..in just 6 months time had their first winner... 4 big wins already this year! Pop: 38 million people lives in California.. I buy 2.00 dollars worth every draw....must keep playing!!! Hope to win!!! Congrats to the lucky winner!!!!
Well, En ReVal, it is because California has more adults than any other state. Plus, more of California state's population and visitors buy the online lottery tickets.
Today's realization that California ticket vendors have already sold 3 MegaMillions jackpot winning tickets and 4 Powerball jackpot winning tickets (each game only has approximately 13 jackpots won per year), has caused a lot of 'single-row, every drawing players' to switch to playing less or ceasing ... since odds of winning were already astronomical before California started selling lottery tickets to each game. It is a non-California, on-line lottery ticket buying, analysts situation of 'gambling hopelessness'.
So you're saying it is a conspiracy theory california won the jackpot the other night? I mean come on...how many more times do they need to win in a row to convince you something isn't right? You can claim conspiracy theory all you want to avoid, and deflect all those thoughts that something is off with these california wins.
OH YEAH!
Y'all gon' make me lose my mind
Up in here, up in here
Y'all gon' make me go all out
Up in here, up in here
Y'all gon' make me act a FOOL
Up in HERE, up in here
Y'all gon' make me lose my cool
Up in here, up in here
I have done the same as you, and have also gotten mocked. Most pass it off as a conspiracy theory, due to being scared that maybe it has merit, or maybe it doesn't....I guess we will see which state wins the MM or PB jackpot.
You would think most of the jackpot winners would be from the Los Angeles area, being easily the second largest city in the country and having an enormous metropolitan area. The majority of lottery tickets sold in the state are bought there. Yet the considerably smaller Bay area, home of the rich and powerful who control the highly influential Silicon Valley technology mecca, appears to produce most of the jackpot winners.
A nail salon worker, Vinh Nguyen was the winner. He's had played the lottery for 5 years. He bought 15 lines and played numbers that jumped into his head presumably as he was filling the betslips. Congratulations Mr Nguyen.
Valid point. The winner just picked his own numbers as he was filling in the slip. Talk about instant luck. You never know, it might hit anybody as long as you buy your tickets. At the end of the day, you gotta play to win.
Hello i just found out that i can summit my tickets to win prizes, how do i post my tickets?
lol! I didn't know those were lyrics.. Cool!
I live here in Redwood City, just south a few miles of San Mateo where Vinh Nguyen won his $228.4 million in the Power Ball lottery. I've been playing the lottery since it started some years ago and never won much of anything. Some of you are posting this thing about California lottery players are always winning. It's not true. California is just a big state with a population of over 30 million. If you were to take all of the lottery players from all over the United States and they came to, let's say Rhode Island and they all played Power Ball, the odds would be exactly the same - 175 million to one. So, don't give me this thing about California, that it's rigged. I look forward to winning in Power Ball some day. If I didn't think I had a chance of winning, I wouldn't be playing the game. Good luck to all of the Lottery Post members in the next Power Ball game!
Millions of people lose money playing MM and PB in New York.
Congratulation to the winner as well as the Dehoff.