Winning Powerball lottery ticket worth $310 million sold in Michigan

Oct 1, 2015, 8:03 am (65 comments)

Powerball

By Todd Northrop

One lucky Michigan lottery player in possession of a Powerball ticket containing the numbers 21, 39, 40, 55, and 59, with Powerball number 17, just became a whole lot richer.

After all the proceeds were tallied Wednesday night, the Powerball jackpot stood at $310.5 million. It was the second-largest Powerball jackpot prize offered this year.

The winning ticket was sold at a Shell gas station in Three Rivers, Michigan. Customers and employees were at the gas station last night, sharing in the excitement.

"It's crazy that it would be here in small town Three Rivers," said Liz Smith, who works at the Shell station. "Someone winning some $300 million — it's just crazy to think!"

Smith says she's sold some winning lottery tickets in the past, but nothing of this magnitude. She's hoping it the buyer turns out to be one of the station's regular customers.

Customer Eric Jorge showed up at the gas station around 4:30 a.m. with a stack of tickets, hoping one is the winner.

"I knew I was always going to win one day," he said. "It's just a matter of time, so hopefully, I have one of the tickets."

Jorge says he was shocked to learn what happened in his small town.

"I stopped to get gas on my way to work and talked to a Three Rivers [police] officer," Jorge recalled. "He said, 'Did you hear what happened?' So my first thing is thinking someone robbed the store, and he's like, 'No! Someone bought the Powerball ticket for the 300 million; I know I bought one here the other day so I hope I'm the one!"'

If your ticket contained the winning numbers, and you opt to take the cash in one lump sum, prepare to pocket about $140 million after taxes, according to the multi-state lottery website USA Mega.  The site notes that winners can face additional taxes beyond those withheld from the payout, depending on how the winner manages their windfall.

In addition to the big winner Wednesday night, 5 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $1,000,000 second-prize: 1 from California, 1 from Connecticut, 1 from Nebraska, 1 from Rhode Island, and 1 from Wisconsin.

The California second-prize winner will receive a whopping payout of $1,771,065, because California awards all prizes on a pari-mutuel basis, meaning the prizes will change each drawing based on the number of tickets sold and the number of tickets that won at each prize level.

Only the player from Rhode Island purchased the Power Play option for an extra $1, automatically doubling their prize to $2 million.

The Power Play number drawn Wednesday night was 3.  Power Play is not available in California, because the fixed nature of the prize increase offered in Power Play is not compatible with California's pari-mutuel payouts.

46 tickets matched four white numbers plus the Powerball and won $10,000.  Of those tickets, 6 were purchased with the Power Play option, increasing the prize to $30,000, and 7 of the tickets were sold in California, where the prize was worth $12,025 this drawing.

Powerball is now played in 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Drawings are Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time.  Tickets cost $2 each.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

THRIFTY's avatarTHRIFTY

LOTTERY PLAYERS $2 INVESTMENT TURNED INTO $310 MILLION FOR THE POWERBALL LOTTERY JACKPOT WINNER.

Green laughGreen laughGreen laugh

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

This is actually a good thing. We now can know how good the new matrix is and how much money{jackpot} it can generate all by itself.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Skepticalwell that was fun NOT !!

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Glad it was won before the matrix change. Now it's time to take a long break and see how this new format evolves for the regular players. 

I think it will be sometime in December before we will hear any buzz from either the PB or MM.

jjtheprince

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on Oct 1, 2015

Glad it was won before the matrix change. Now it's time to take a long break and see how this new format evolves for the regular players. 

I think it will be sometime in December before we will hear any buzz from either the PB or MM.

Well I can tell you this, somebody played trends and won (they picked or had a back to back number pair).

Now everyone here will take me seriously when I tell them to play trends and win because we will never see another drawing in our lifetimes where back to back number pairs aren't drawn.

It will still be way too easy to win (for winners) even after the matrix change.  They'll end up just having to make ANOTHER matrix change to keep from getting bankrupted by winners.  Why don't they follow my advice and create a matrix of 299 white balls and 149 powerballs.  This would be HARD to win and would reduce the chance of back to back number pairs.

Why does Michigan always win these big ones?  I would have much rather seen New York win.

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by jjtheprince on Oct 1, 2015

Well I can tell you this, somebody played trends and won (they picked or had a back to back number pair).

Now everyone here will take me seriously when I tell them to play trends and win because we will never see another drawing in our lifetimes where back to back number pairs aren't drawn.

It will still be way too easy to win (for winners) even after the matrix change.  They'll end up just having to make ANOTHER matrix change to keep from getting bankrupted by winners.  Why don't they follow my advice and create a matrix of 299 white balls and 149 powerballs.  This would be HARD to win and would reduce the chance of back to back number pairs.

Why does Michigan always win these big ones?  I would have much rather seen New York win.

LOL, Congrats to the lucky Gander.

jjtheprince

Oh, you're from Michigan?  How does it feel to be the odd man or woman out in your state?

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Congrats to the winner!

jj,
Now everyone here will take me seriously when I tell them to play trends and win because we will never see another drawing in our lifetimes where back to back number pairs aren't drawn....

Why does Michigan always win these big ones?  I would have much rather seen New York win.


There will be see plenty of drawings without back to back number pairs.

As for Michigan 'always' winning the big ones, well define 'always' and GET SOME HELP.

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by jjtheprince on Oct 1, 2015

Oh, you're from Michigan?  How does it feel to be the odd man or woman out in your state?

It doesn't bother me at all,you got to stop thinking like that, Start building your own wealth.

Yes you can!

Gleno's avatarGleno

Congrats to the new millionaire. Thank God it was not in the state of IL.

Party

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

Quote: Originally posted by Gleno on Oct 1, 2015

Congrats to the new millionaire. Thank God it was not in the state of IL.

Party

LOL if you live in IL  why would you be buying and  multistate tickets AT ALL?


i was looking forward to the last of the " easy odds " draw being $360M+ and getting won, man there would have been lots of " last chance "  purchases.

I even asked my american buddy to buy an extra ticket for Saturdays draw. 

 

congrats to the winner, and dont spend too hard  you can live off the interest.

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Congratulations to the winner/s...... Hurray! Yeah for Michigan(gander) Thumbs Up

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Oct 1, 2015

It doesn't bother me at all,you got to stop thinking like that, Start building your own wealth.

Yes you can!

I Agree!

Bleudog101

I too am anxious about the new matrix 'building faster jackpots'.  Seems like MUSL said this before; only difference I saw was it started @ $40 million and doubled in price.  Still I play and go on with life.

Well written article Todd.  Thank you for not being like the media early this morning 'The winner(s) still have not come forward'.  Hello, the lottery headquarters (Lansing?) isn't even open @ that hour.  Drives me nuts when they say that.

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