One regular customer of a 7-Eleven store is currently holding onto the winning Powerball lottery ticket! Instead of another rollover, the US Powerball was won last Saturday, 7 May 2016, by a woman in New Jersey who has since contacted the store where it was bought and arranged for Powerball officials to meet with her.
At this point the winner’s identity has remained a mystery. What has been reported by the store owner is that she and her husband given $30 000 as a thank you for the sale of the lottery ticket.
That’s a drop in the ocean compared to the $429.6 million that will soon be enjoyed by the winner.
So despite the alarmingly bad odds of someone actually winning the lottery it does happen—as has once again been proved by this New Jersey resident. What’s even more amazing is that she picked her own numbers. Whether or not these were random remains to be seen when her identity is revealed.
Although the lottery has been won by a New Jersey resident before, the last win was only $383 million—a tad short of the newest prize. Seven other winning tickets claimed a prize of $1 million each for guessing five numbers correctly. Amazingly, all seven were claimed by US residents as follows:
- Three in New York
- Two in Illinois
- One in California
- One in Virginia
For those of you who didn’t catch the US Powerball lottery draw, the winning numbers were:
05, 25, 26, 44, 66 and the Powerball was 09
New Jersey’s lottery executive, Carole Hedinger, said in a statement, “Winning the Powerball jackpot is a life-changing event. Congratulations to the ticketholder(s) and to the retailer who sold it.” Congratulations to the retailer indeed. Her $30 000 will be used to pay for a vacation to Alaska for her and her husband. Hedinger went on to confirm that this was the seventh largest Powerball lottery win ever.
This proves once again that if you don’t play, you can’t possibly expect to win. There’s one lady in New Jersey who will be smiling all the way to the bank very soon. It’s estimated that for the next Powerball jackpot to grow to where this one was will take approximately four to six weeks. Those who love playing will be purchasing their tickets soon to get in line for the next big win.