California has its first-ever lottery-winning billionaire after a California Lottery player won the record-breaking Powerball jackpot this week.
The California Lottery confirmed the news on its Twitter account, revealing the final jackpot reached $2.04bn, the highest-ever jackpot in history.
Three more tickets in California matched five numbers missing just the Powerball in Gardena, Beaumont, and San Francisco.
“Congratulations to our newest ‘lucky retailer’ in California,” said the California Lottery. “Joe’s Service Centre in Altadena sold the winning $2.04bn Powerball ticket making history by not only selling the largest jackpot ever, but making California’s first ever billionaire.
“Joe’s Service Centre earned a $1m bonus for selling this lucky ticket. Thank you players for continuing to support our mission and our local communities.”
The winning ticket holder is the first to scoop a Powerball jackpot since August 3 when a Pennsylvania Lottery player took home more than $206.9m.
There were 40 draws without success before the jackpot was won at the 41st attempt this week.
The latest draw was meant to take place on Monday night but was delayed until 8.57am eastern US time on Tuesday as one participating lottery was still processing its sales and play data.
The winner must now decide whether to take the $2.04bn as an annuity spread over three decades or as a reduced, immediate lump sum of $997.6m.
As reported by CNBC, California does not tax lottery winnings, so if the winning ticket holder lives in the Golden State, no state or local taxes would be due.
However, if the winner lives elsewhere, their state of residency would determine what they owe in their jurisdiction. Those levies range from zero to more than 10%, depending on the state.