$2B Jackpot-Winning Powerball Ticket Sold In California

CALIFORNIA — Lottery officials have confirmed Tuesday that a winning Powerball ticket was sold in California for Monday's record-setting jackpot, which topped out at more than $2 billion.

"California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire!," the California Lottery tweeted Tuesday. "One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw. The final jackpot amount for this draw came to $2.04 BILLION dollars."

In addition to the main jackpot, there were some other big winners in California.

Three other tickets, with five matching numbers, were sold in the state. Prizes for those will total an estimated $1,149,661, according to the California Lottery.

"Not only did California have the BIG #Powerball winner, three more tickets matched 5 numbers missing just the Powerball in Gardena, Beaumont, and San Francisco," the California Lottery tweeted. "Congratulations to all our players!"

Nineteen other tickets from other states also matched five numbers for the same prize of $1,149,661.

Elsewhere, someone in Florida won $2 million, by matching five out of five numbers, plus the "power play," according to the Powerball website.

The main jackpot is now the biggest prize ever in lottery history. The numbers were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with a Powerball of 10.

The single winning ticket will earn a prize of $1.9 billion, according to the California Lottery. The holder of the winning ticket will have the option of taking the money in payments or in a lump sum. The lump sum payment would be $997.6 million.

Lucky Retailer

The excitement was evident Tuesday at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, where owner Joseph Chahayed was swarmed by customers and media after the news broke. He said representatives from the California Lottery were at his shop before he even opened Tuesday morning to tell him the news.

"I would like to thank all the community (who) support me," he said. "And I would ... I encourage you to buy a ticket from this station. ... You're going to be a winner to."

He said he was grateful that the community and schools will benefit from the lottery funds. As the retailer who sold the winning ticket, Chahayed received a $1 million bonus.

"I will share it with the family ... with my kids, my grandchildren," he said. `I have 11 grandchildren, and I have to share with them.

His son, Danny, said his father deserves the bonus.

"There's no one else who deserves it more than this man," he said. "He's worked hard his whole life. He deserves every bit of it."

Chahayed's other son, Joe Jr., thanked the residents who have supported the business for 20 years.

"We want to just thank all of our community members who always come and are dedicated to this station," he said. "They truly believe in luck and they truly believe that some things are just deserved to be. Hopefully one of the winners is from our community. And congratulations and thank you to the lottery system for creating a program where the schools are going to benefit. A lot of people are going to benefit from this, so great program. Appreciate it so much."

The local win marks the first time the California Lottery has doled out a jackpot topping $1 billion to a single winner.

The Wait

Players had to wait nearly 10 hours until Tuesday morning to check their tickets after “technical difficulties,” lottery officials said. When ticket sales had finally been calculated, the jackpot, originally estimated at $1.9 billion, had swelled to $2.04 billion.

It's still not clear what the "difficulties" were, but the California Lottery said on Monday that one state — not California — caused the holdup because it needed "extra time to complete the required security protocols."

"Powerball has strict security requirements that must be met by all 48 lotteries before a drawing can occur," lottery officials said.

A Powerball ticket costs $2. For an additional $1 per ticket, players can multiply non-jackpot prizes by up to 10 times with the Power Play feature. One caveat: The 10X multiplier is only available when the advertised jackpot annuity is $150 million or less.

To win the jackpot, a player must match all white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. Lottery officials say chances are higher when players don’t choose their own numbers. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years were picked by a computer.

Drawings are held three times a week, at 10:59 p.m. EST on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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— City News Service contributed to this report.