California Lottery: Winning Powerball ticket sold in LA area

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LOS ANGELES – A winning ticket in Wednesday night’s record $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot was sold in suburban Los Angeles, a spokesman for the California lottery says.

It could take several hours before officials know whether any winning tickets were sold elsewhere. The winning numbers were 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10.

One winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, said Alex Travesta, a spokesman for that state’s lottery. The identity of the winner is not yet known.

The store and its surrounding strip mall immediately became a wildly popular gathering spot in the usually quiet Los Angeles County suburb. Dozens of people from TV news crews to gawkers crowded the store and spilled into its parking lot.

The store where the winner bought the ticket will get a $1 million bonus for selling it, Travesta said.

Officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, said they expected more than 85 per cent of the possible number combinations would have been bought for the drawing. The odds of winning were 1 in 292.2 million.

Winners have to pay 39.6 percent of the prize in federal income taxes, in addition to any state taxes.

Estimated jackpot amounts, which are released daily, have been steadily rising since Nov. 4, when the jackpot was reset at $40 million.

Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

But residents in the six states that don’t participate found ways to get their hands on tickets. Some of the biggest Powerball sales have come from cities bordering states that don’t sell the tickets, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The association oversees the Powerball Lottery, but management rotates annually among member states.