Someone in New Jersey is waking up to a completely different reality this week after matching all six numbers in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. The lucky ticket holder has claimed a staggering jackpot of 847 million dollars, marking the ninth largest prize in the history of the game. While the total amount is eye watering, the winner faces a choice between taking the full amount through an annuity paid out over thirty years or opting for a lump sum cash payment estimated at roughly 363.1 million dollars before taxes.
The winning combination consisted of white balls 15, 34, 41, 53, and 56, with 21 serving as the red Powerball. This victory ends a long drought for players, as it took thirty five consecutive drawings before someone finally hit the grand prize. According to Stephen Durrell of the Powerball Product Group, these back to back massive wins highlight just how much excitement the lottery continues to generate across the country. It follows closely on the heels of a billion dollar win seen in Illinois just a few months ago.
Despite the scale of the windfall, the identity of the winner remains a mystery for now. Because New Jersey state law permits lottery winners to keep their names private, officials have not disclosed who bought the ticket or which specific store sold it. Beyond the main jackpot, four other tickets managed to match all five white balls, netting those players significant secondary prizes.
With the giant pot now cleared, the Powerball jackpot will reset to its base level of 20 million dollars for Saturday’s upcoming draw. For most people, however, this serves as a reminder of just how rare such luck is given that the odds of hitting all six numbers sit at about one in 292.2 million. Still, for one resident of New Jersey, those astronomical odds didn’t matter tonight.
