Includes video report
Update: Cash value was second-highest ever for any US lottery game
Update 2: Cash value reported by MUSL was wrong! Actually $224.6 million.
By Todd Northrop, with wire reports
LAPEER, Mich. — A gas station in a small Michigan city is buzzing with excitement after the state lottery announced Thursday that a $337 million jackpot-winning Powerball ticket was sold there.
The Michigan Lottery said the ticket was sold in Lapeer, about 45 miles north of Detroit. There wasn't immediate word about the buyer's identity. It was the third biggest Powerball jackpot in the game's history, lottery officials said, and the holder could take home a $224.7 million lump sum.
[Editor's note: The AP published a story today that had wide circulation on the Internet stating that the cash value was $241 million. The cash value for Wednesday's jackpot has been confirmed as $244.7 million by MUSL — $244,655,690.17, to be exact. I have updated the next sentence to reflect the fact that the cash value was the second-highest ever recorded for a US lottery game.]
[Editor's note #2: The cash value reported by MUSL was wrong. The actual cash value of the jackpot was $224,655,690.17. It is the FOURTH-highest cash value recorded in US history, not the second-highest as previously reported.]
The lump-sum cash value is the largest ever for a Powerball jackpot — and the second-highest fourth-highest cash value for any game in US history.
"It's a great day," Mayor Bill Sprague said after pumping gas at the market and Sunoco station, which was the center of the excitement.
Inside, customers who approached the counter to buy coffee, snacks and yes, lottery tickets, offered congratulations to Betr Odish, whose family owns the business.
Odish, 21, said his family has owned the station for two years.
"It's exciting," he said.
Odish, who was working the 2 a.m. to 1 p.m., shift, said a cousin called him around 5 a.m. to give him the good news. The Michigan Lottery said the business will get a $50,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. Odish said he didn't know what his family would do with the money, but he was sure it would be put to good use.
"It'll probably be their best business day," said Sprague, who described his 10,000-resident community as "a nice, hard-working Midwestern town."
The winning numbers in the Wednesday night drawing were 6, 27, 46, 51, 56 and Powerball 21. The holder of the winning ticket has a year to come forward and claim the prize, Michigan Lottery spokeswoman Andi Brancato said. The identity of the ticket holder will be released after they contact the lottery, she said.
Joe Jackson, 57, of Columbus, Ohio, has been in town for the past 10 days selling used cars. Jackson said he purchased two Powerball tickets Wednesday in the same store where the jackpot ticket was sold.
"Should have bought more. I am very upset," he joked.
"It should have been me," Jackson said before fist-bumping an employee and walking out.
VIDEO: How the Powerball lottery works
I am glad it got hit. I had a feeling about 4 of the field of 5 but unfortunately, I didn't sit and put it all together. Guess I need to stop filling out play slips while standing inside the store. Here's hopinthat is a single winner...kills the excitement of late when name your work pool comes forward and we learn that peeps will be just rich, not mega rich.
Now time to go put in my numbers for Saturday, and I hope I hit. I will come forward immediately since I know media is so focused on Michigan. I bet the winner is a Canadian...welcome to paying your fair share of taxes to US.
Congrat's to the new winner, and Michigan!
Probably no doubt this will be taken as a lump sum, would be very surprised if it were not the case.
I'm thinking its a pool, or an occasional player.
Just cause of the size of the JP.
But I'm hoping its a single long time player or family pool.
Lotteries represent redistribution of wealth at its finest. Lotteries redistribute your income through taxable winnings.
Lotteries represent voluntary taxation.
Its certainly a whole lot better than "forced taxation" which is what is being done in countries where citizens are taxed by their Governments. At least with the "voluntary taxation" one has the option to play or not - and if you decided to play, you also get to choose how much you will play. The other way; they take your money when they want to, as much as they want to, and when they feel they need more of your money - they simply increase taxes and take some more of your hard-earned money.
I've always maintained that I will not tolerate direct income tax in my country - NEVER. If the day ever comes that there is income tax in the Bahamas, is the day my bones will be white, as the old folks say. We have enough indirect tax as it is.
The moment citizens of any country allow their Government, or gives them the authority to put their hands in the citizens' pockets/wallets and take their money, is the day I call APRIL FOOLS' DAY - because once you do that, they NEVER stop taking and then they don't know when to stop, they keep going deeper into your pockets. In addition, because they didn't earn that money (it's like taking candy from a baby) then of course, all they do with your hard-earned money is WASTE IT!!!
I am 100 percent certain that if you were to ask the over 300 hundred million people in the U.S. who pay taxes, if it were put to a vote and they were given a choice to pay taxes or not, I'll bet any money that the majority of U.S. citizens, (and for that matter, citizens of any nation that is taxed to the max) I'll bet my bottom dollar that they would opt for NO TAXES PERIOD!!!! I bet, and that would be an easy win - anyday.
I have just updated the news story to reflect the exact cash value reported to me by MUSL — $244,655,690.17. (i.e., $244.7 million.)
It's the second-highest cash value in history — even higher than the $380 million Mega Millions jackpot on Jan. 4, 2011, when the cash value was $240 million. I'm really shocked by that, because Mega Millions almost always has a bigger cash value-to-annuity ratio, because of its fixed annuity (vs. Powerball's annually-increasing annuity), as well as Mega Million's shorter annuity period.
If annuity rates were not doing so poorly as they are in this horrendous economy, the advertised jackpot (annuity) would have been crazy-high.
Cash is always king!
Crazy,
They interviewed someone from my city.
This is a sign!
Sorry for him but, I'll be the next big winner from Columbus.
Congratulations to this jackpot winner. I didn't know this is the highest jackpot in lump sum when they step forward.
I WILL BUY A LOTTERY TICKET SOMEDAY.
Congrat's to the winner!(s) I just bought $10 for Saturday's $40 million drawing. Can't wait!
Congrat's are in order hotslot!
Look forward to seeing you at the lottery headquarters, showing off your oversized trophy check!
They sure did mess up the amount on that oversized check. $31 billion 490 million dollars. Idiots!!!!!!!!!!-weshar75
Nice catch weshar, didn't notice!
Funny thing is, ole' Jack probably would have blown through that cash for $31 billion, quicker than his millions!