California ticket wins $1B Powerball prize, one of largest in history

The Powerball’s long winless streak is finally over.

On Wednesday night, the California Lottery announced that one ticket won the estimated $1.08 billion jackpot. The ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles.

The state lottery said via Twitter that the winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market, which will receive a $1 million bonus from the lottery. Located in the city’s Fashion District, it’s a few blocks from Skid Row’s scenes of homelessness and distress where thousands of people live in makeshift shanties that line entire blocks of the neighborhood.

A crush of reporters descended on the narrow minimarket to interview owner Nabor Herrera, creating an early morning stir. Lottery officials hung signs saying “billionaire made here.”

The 107-block district is both a center of the West Coast apparel industry as well as a low-income area where small stores offer clothing, accessories and fabrics that spill onto sidewalks. Bargain-seekers flock to the district, but many storefronts are shuttered.

It was the third biggest Powerball jackpot and the sixth largest in U.S. lottery history.

The winning numbers were 7-10-11-13-24 with a Powerball of 24. The next drawing is Saturday for $20 million.

Seven tickets won $448,750 each by matching the five numbers. One ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven store in South Lake Tahoe.

Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate of $1 billion to $1.08 billion at the time of the drawing, moving it from the seventh largest to the sixth largest U.S lottery jackpot ever won.

The winner can choose either the total jackpot paid out in yearly increments or a $558.1 million, one-time lump sum before taxes.

The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players.

The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion in November. Before Wednesday, the last time someone had won the Powerball jackpot was April 19 for a top prize of nearly $253 million. No one had won the grand prize in the past 39 consecutive drawings.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Mega Millions

The Mega Millions top prize is an estimated $720 million after there was no Tuesday winner of the lottery’s latest jackpot.

Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to purchase tickets as the size of the grand prize grows.

The last time a Mega Millions player hit the top prize was April 18. The next drawing is Friday.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Tickets cost $2 for each lottery and are not sold in Nevada. The closest location is at The Lotto Store in Primm, just across the Nevada state line. Arizona outlets also sell lottery tickets.

Primm winner

A lucky lottery player in Primm won big last weekend. Three winners matched all the numbers in California Lottery’s Fantasy 5 draw, and one purchased their lucky ticket at The Lotto Store in Primm.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.