Washington Lottery represents winner at press conference

By Kate Northrop

Today, the Washington Lottery announced that the sole winner $754.6 million Powerball jackpot stepped forward to claim the prize.

The name of the $754.6 million Powerball jackpot winner is now known to the public after the Lottery announced the identity of the person who won the behemoth prize in February.

The Washington Lottery revealed the winner's name to be Becky Bell of Auburn, a long-time Boeing employee who declined to take part in media interviews.

An incredible link between her job and the advertised jackpots she saw at the Fred Meyer grocery store in Auburn helped Bell make a decision that would impact her for the rest of her life.

Having worked as a Supply Chain Analyst at The Boeing Company for nearly 36 years, Bell knew that the company had just delivered its last 747 jumbo jet. When she went grocery shopping with her daughter at the store six days after the company's milestone, she glanced to the side to have a look at the current lottery jackpots.

She saw that the Powerball jackpot was advertised at $747 million — that was her sign to play.

"That's when it hit me... I had to buy one more ticket," Bell told the Lottery.

It's thanks to that remarkable coincidence that she bought the single ticket to win the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot in history and the largest jackpot ever won in Washington state.

The winning numbers for the drawing on Mon., Feb. 6 were 5, 11, 22, 23, and 69 with Powerball 7. While she had a winning ticket worth exactly $754,550,826 in her possession, Bell didn't realize it at first.

"I was working virtually the next day and getting ready for my 6:20 am meeting, and I scrolled over the news widget, and it popped up and I saw a story about the winning ticket being sold in Auburn and thought, 'That could be me,'" Bell recalled. "After my meeting, I scanned my first ticket and it wasn't a winner. Then I scanned the second ticket and it said 'Winning ticket. Claim at Lottery Office.' So, I knew I had won at least $600, which was pretty exciting."

It was worth far more than $600. Bell was in for the shock of her life when she crosschecked her ticket's numbers with the winning numbers in the drawing.

"I've never won more than $20 in my life," Bell continued. "So you can imagine my shock when I realized what had just happened. I just broke down and cried."

Bell checked her numbers to a healthy extent, first waking up her son to double check for her, then her daughter to triple check, then calling her other daughter to quadruple check, and then texted a photo of the ticket to her sisters and mother for a fifth check.

"The funny thing was my mom misheard me when I told her how much I won," Bell explained. "She said 'Seven million...that's great, honey. Everyone can have a million.' Then I had to say, 'No, mom, seven HUNDRED million dollars. Pretty soon, everyone was crying."

According to the Lottery, Bell is a regular player and will typically spend $20 a week on certain games. She generally reserves $6 for Powerball and Mega Millions each, followed by $5 for Hit 5 and $3 for Lotto.

"Her decision to buy that extra ticket certainly paid off," Lottery Director Marcus Glasper quipped. "Frankly, it's a big thrill for all of us here at Washington's Lottery to be able to celebrate this big win with Becky. It just goes to show that truly anyone can win."

Prior to the win, Bell already had plans to retire from her position at The Boeing Company in June and is currently training others who will eventually take on her roles at the company. While it might feel tempting to retire immediately in the face of having just won hundreds of millions of dollars, she said that she wants to complete the transition so as not to leave the company and new employees "in a lurch."

However, the winnings might have swayed her a little, as she is now retiring in March instead of June as originally planned.

As if she didn't already have enough luck, Lottery officials informed her that her jackpot-winning ticket worth millions of dollars also won an additional $8 on another line.

"I told you it was a sign," Bell laughed.

The winner opted to take the cash option of the jackpot and receives $309,475,792.80 after federal tax withholdings. Washington does not have a state tax on lottery winnings. That final amount also includes the extra $8 prize she won on her other line of numbers on her ticket.

Bell's winning ticket was a Quick Pick.

The Fred Meyer on Auburn Way N in Auburn that sold the winning ticket receives a $50,000 bonus for selling the Powerball ticket. The store announced in February that it was honoring its commitment to Zero Hunger, a zero-waste campaign to end hunger and eliminate waste, and would be donating the entire commission to the Auburn Food Bank.

Bell's win marks the second Powerball jackpot win in Washington and the second time it was won in Auburn. The last time it was hit was in 2014 when woman purchased a winning ticket for a $90 million jackpot from a retailer in Auburn. Coincidentally, that winner's husband also worked for Boeing in Auburn, right in the same building that Bell works.

The Lottery took advantage of today's monumental announcement to advise players of an unclaimed $1 million Powerball ticket waiting to be claimed.

"There's also another Washington millionaire out there somewhere," Glasper added. "There is a $1 million unclaimed Powerball prize from a ticket purchased at a Maverik store in Airway Heights, near Spokane, back in November, and we'd really like to find that winner, too. So please check your piles of mail, check your couch cushions, check your glove box, and check wherever you might have stashed a ticket, because we'd like to award you your prize, too!"

Winners in Washington have 180 days from the draw date to claim their prizes. Unclaimed winnings are placed into a reserve account by law, where the surplus in that account is transferred to the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account (WOPA), which supports state education.

The Powerball jackpot currently stands at $161 million for the next drawing on Sat., March 4, 2023 at 10:59 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.

Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com).  The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)The Washington Lottery celebrated the state's Powerball jackpot win with a cake and ceremonial check.