CA Powerball Ticket Hits For $451K As Jackpot Grows To $760M

CALIFORNIA — The Powerball jackpot ballooned to $760 million after no tickets matched all the winning numbers Wednesday night, but one lucky player in Northern California hit for the second-largest prize.

California lottery officials said a ticket sold at a 7-Eleven in El Dorado Hills — a small town east of Sacramento — matched five numbers Wednesday, missing only the Powerball and making for a $451,000 payout.

Five other players in the Golden State matched four numbers and hit the Powerball, netting a third-place prize of more than $23,000.

Wednesday's winning numbers were 4, 11, 38, 51 and 68, with a Powerball of 5. To be eligible for Saturday’s drawing at 7:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, California residents need to buy tickets by 7 p.m.

This is the fourth jackpot worth more than half a billion dollars in 2023. The last time a jackpot-winning ticket was sold was on Oct. 11, when a ticket worth $1.765 billion was sold in California. Since then, there have been 32 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.

Although there was no jackpot winner Wednesday, more than a million winning tickets were sold.

California Lottery officials said the game has raised more than $50 million for public schools from Powerball sales alone since the jackpot started growing in mid-October.

The odds of winning the jackpot are steep — about 1 in 292.2 million. For perspective, the odds of being struck by lightning are less than 1 in 1 million.

And if you do win, keep in mind the federal government takes a 24 percent cut of any prize worth $5,000 or more. Most jackpot winners take the lump sum — that’s $382.5 million for Saturday’s game — and they immediately see fewer dollars flow into their bank accounts when the prize is paid out.

If the $760 million prize were paid out in an annuity spread over 30 years, the IRS would claim 24 percent before the payments went out.

In either case, whether a cash payout or annuity, a jackpot winner would jump into the highest income tax bracket, and would pay the top federal rate of 37 percent.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play. For an extra $1, players can buy the Power Play option that doubles the size of the prize.

The game is played in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 7:59 p.m. PST from the Florida Lottery drawing studio in Tallahassee.