3-way split for massive Powerball US jackpot
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Three winning tickets shared a US$1.6 billion bonanza in the US Powerball lottery on Wednesday, after millions of people tuned in to see the fate of the world-record jackpot live on TV.
The winning numbers were 4, 8, 19, 27 and 34, with a 10 as the so-called Powerball number.
Lottery fever gripped the United States, with people forming long queues outside stores to buy tickets and then frantically checking their US$2 slips to see if they had hit the mammoth jackpot.
“It’s official! There were 3 jackpot-winning tickets in tonight’s Powerball draw: California, Florida & Tennessee,” California Lottery tweeted.
Local TV showed swarms of people, many cheering, descending on the Los Angeles convenience store where the California ticket was sold.
The jackpot, which had stood at US$1.5 billion for much of the day, eventually crept up to nearly US$1.59 billion, a record in the US lottery industry.
The three winners will rake in an eye-watering US$528.8 million each, NBC News said, although the taxman will soon come calling.
The odds of winning were at least one in 292 million.
There was a windfall too for Balbir Atwal, owner of a 7-Eleven franchise in Chino Hills, a Los Angeles suburb, who will pocket a US$1 million bonus for selling a winning ticket.
“I didn’t expect this big crowd but my Chino Hills customers love me, and I love them,” he told CNN, grinning broadly.
Despite the miniscule chances of hitting the jackpot, shops all over the US did a roaring trade in frenzied last-minute ticket sales in the final hours before the live raw.
Lottery executives say ticket sales reached record levels, generating more than US$1 million an hour in Texas alone in the final build-up to the draw.
Wednesday’s jackpot started at US$40 million on November 7 and was the result of 20 draws with no overall winner.
“Sales are doing exponentially more than we’ve ever done before,” Gary Grief, chair of the Powerball game group, said on Tuesday.
The previous US jackpot record of $656 million, on March 30, 2012, was scooped up by three winners from North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas.
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