Update: Winning ticket for massive $1 billion Powerball jackpot sold in Los Angeles
SACRAMENTO -- California lottery officials on Wednesday night confirmed a winning ticket for the $1 billion Powerball prize was sold in Los Angeles.
The California Lottery website posted shortly after 8 p.m. that the winning numbers were 7-10-11-13-24 with the Power number 24.
The California Lottery website later confirmed a winning ticket had been sold at the Las Palmitas Mini Market at 1205 Wall Street in Los Angeles.
There were also seven tickets that had the five numbers and not the Powerball number that were worth $448,750 at locations that included winners who bought tickets in Santa Clara, Hayward and the Safeway on Mission Street in San Francisco.
The winner will get to pick either an estimated lump sum payment of $516.8 million or an annuity.
The last time somebody won the Powerball was in April. The $1 billion jackpot is the third-largest prize in the game's history.
With the Powerball prize at such a large amount, many Bay Area residents who typically don't play the lottery were lining up to buy tickets.
The one-time players know that to live like a billionaire takes a lot of money, but to dream like a billionaire only takes two bucks.
The electronic sign in front of the Cork 'N Bottle in Concord couldn't even display the Powerball's billion-dollar prize, topping out at $999 million. The jackpot hitting that number -- the third biggest in Powerball history -- was enough to capture the imagination of Luis Martinez.
"You know, it starts all the dreams for folks," he said. "And everybody's thinking about buying a boat and everything, a private plane,to go to Spain."
But apparently even the $1 billion prize wasn't big enough to tempt skeptic Jim Newbold.
"Not worth a dollar, because the chances of winning are...I can be hit by lightning five times before I can win," said the Concord resident.
But sometimes lightning does strike more than once. The Kwik and Convenient Market in Fremont sold a winning ticket in 2012 worth $52 million and a scratcher in 2018 worth $10 million.
Kenny Olson plays there a lot -- often every day -- but he wasn't impressed when he saw the sign out front with the number "1" on it.
"I walked in here and saw a dollar. Looked like someone won. No! It was one for one billion. So I'm like, 'OK!'" said Olson. "It's just, you want to be that lucky guy. And when you're feeling it, then you're feeling it. And hopefully it hits. And if you play it a lot, you should hit. Not that one person who put a dollar in and won the whole thing."
That could describe Latreece Vance, who normally never plays the lottery and wasn't sure what brought her in to the store.
"You know, the adrenaline," she said, "I don't know, something. I can't say for certain. But it's just...that's a lot of money. You got to at least try."
People who play a lot hate it when a one-time player wins. But the prize for persistence probably goes to LeRoy Coleman who opened his wallet to show the wad of tickets he'd purchased.
"I got Mega, I got Power, I got it all," said Coleman. "See, it's pretty deep for tonight. It's just the American Dream, really. That's what I say. It's the American Dream. You hit that, you're pretty much set."
He mostly plays scratchers now -- the $30 kind that pays 20 million dollars. But when he does play Powerball, he's got a system. He pulled a filled-out ticket out of his car.
"This is my oldest ticket. Over two years old, and I still use this. Yeah, I use the same numbers, all these," he said.
When asked why he keeps playing the same numbers that have never really won anything, he replied, "Because you never know what's going to hit," he said, "you never know!"
People know how ridiculous the odds are against winning, but the lure of a billion dollars cuts through common sense and goes straight to the "what if?" factor. And like LeRoy said, you just never know.
