$2.04B Powerball Jackpot Ticket Sold: Jackpot Now $20M In IL

Editor's Note: Patch erroneously reported that the Powerball jackpot had grown to $2.3 billion after no one claimed the winning numbers at Monday's drawing. A winning ticket was sold in California. Patch will update this story as more information becomes available. Patch regrets the error.

ILLINOIS — At least one player bought a winning ticket in the $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot ticket in the latest drawing, lottery officials in California said Tuesday.

The player who bought a ticket in Altadena matched the winning numbers — 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, with a Powerball of 10. It was the largest prize in U.S. lottery history, and only the fourth time in the 30-year history of the game that the jackpot has crossed $1 billion.

That means the jackpot in the Wednesday drawing will be reset.

Players went to bed Monday without knowing a winner. The frenzied pace of ticket-buying didn’t “break” Powerball Monday night. Rather, game officials said the delay came after one of the participating state lotteries was unable to process its sales data.

“Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to submit their sales and play data prior to the winning numbers being selected,” the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a statement. The organization declined to say in which state the delay occurred.

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In Illinois, sales of tickets cut off at 9 p.m. on Wednesday for that night’s drawing. Given the interest in the game, it’s best not to wait until the last minute. In Tuesday morning's drawing, Illinois Lottery officials said that two players matched four numbers and the Powerball, plus they added the game’s ‘Power Play’ feature to win $100,000 each. Another 11 players matched four numbers and the Powerball and won $50,000 each. A lottery spokeswoman said that it is not yet known where the lucky tickets were sold around Illinois.

Nearly 405,000 other prizes were won in this morning’s Powerball drawing, officials said.

Do you know you’re dreaming about what you would do with the prize? Someone has to win sometime, right? In Illinois, there have been two jackpot winners over the 22 years since Powerball was introduced here.

If you hold the lucky ticket, winnings will be taxed at a rate of 4.95 percent in Illinois and at a federal rate of 24 percent. Players in Illinois have financed 37 million for local schools since the game began here in 2010 with more than $93 million being spent on Powerball tickets by Illinois players, lottery officials said.

The frenzied pace of ticket-buying didn’t “break” Powerball Monday night. Rather, game officials said the delay came after one of the participating state lotteries was unable to process its sales data.

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If no one wins the jackpot Wednesday, it will continue to grow. The odds of winning it remains daunting — 1 in 292.2 million — no matter how many tickets are sold.

No one has claimed the prize since Aug. 3.

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 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Powerball said that although a jackpot-winning ticket wasn’t sold, millions of smaller prizes will be paid out after the latest draw.