One lucky ticket holder in the US won a jackpot of $ 2.04 billion (£ 1.76 billion !!!), the largest lottery prize in history.
The winner bought the ticket in California after three months of rollover with no one winning the first prize.
The jackpot ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles.
Powerball players who shop at Joe’s will now be scrambling to check if they’ve become the country’s last billionaires.
Whoever it is has become the 1,292th richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ latest list of billionaires.
They are alongside nearly 50 other billionaires, including those who have amassed their wealth in the oil, real estate and Greek yogurt industries.
The winning numbers drawn at the Florida Lottery study in Tallahassee were white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56.
The red Powerball was 10.
The winner had to match all six lucky numbers, including the final Powerball, to hit the jackpot.
The new jackpot surpasses the previous record prize of $ 1.586 billion (£ 1.398 billion) won in 2016 by three Powerball players in California, Florida and Tennessee.
The latest jackpot has reached an estimate $ 1.9 billion (£ 1.6 billion) on Mondaybut it rose to $ 2.04 billion (£ 1.8 billion) this morning after updated calculations.
The winning ticket holder is the first to hit a Powerball jackpot since 3 August, when a Pennsylvania player took home more than $ 200 million (£ 177 million).
That run of 39 consecutive draws without a winner reflected the strong odds of winning a jackpot – one in 292.2 million.
Only four previous jackpots have exceeded $ 1 billion (around £ 860 million), but none of these are close to today’s prize, which started at $ 20 million (£ 17 million) on August 6, but has grown to three. months without winnings.
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The last draw was supposed to take place on Monday evening, but was postponed until 8:57 AM Eastern Time (1:57 PM in the UK) on Tuesday.
The Multi-State Lottery Association said the draw was delayed because a participating lottery had problems with sales processing.
The association said it was against its policy to say which lottery was delayed.
The $ 2.04 billion prize is for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for cash instead, but the value of that option wasn’t immediately available on Tuesday morning.
The game is played in 45 states, plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Oh, and in case you have a vested interest in EuroMillions, the winning numbers for the last draw are: 03, 05, 32, 33, 50. The Lucky Stars are 01 and 08. The jackpot is £ 14 million.
