The California winner who will share Wednesday night’s record-smashing Powerball jackpot will be exempt from state taxes on the winnings.
At least three winning tickets for the record breaking $1.586 billion Powerball lottery were sold, and the California one has been tied to a 7-Eleven in suburban Los Angeles where a large crowd began gathering Wednesday night. Late breaking news alerted to winning tickets sold in Tennessee and Florida as well.
Ironically, while California has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation, it is one of only three states that exempts lottery winners from taxes on their prizes, the Fresno Bee reports.
The news broke late Wednesday night of the winning ticket. ABC 10 reported that the ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven at 4092 Chino Hills Parkway in Chino Hills. The numbers were drawn at 7:59 p.m. The identity of the winner has not yet been released.
An early image of the 7-11 from the air showed scores of interested parties peering into the store that sold the winning ticket.
In addition to the top winning ticket 12 others were sold in California that matched five of six winning numbers, but not the Powerball number. Sales for the tickets were made in Nipton, Chula Vista, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Tustin, Pacoima, Vacaville, Cloverdale, Redlands, Gardena and Irwindale.
The winning Powerball numbers drawn were 4, 8, 19, 27 and 34. The Powerball number was 10. The prize value for winners matching five of the six numbers is still being calculated.
“Players have 180 days from the date of the POWERBALL® draw to claim prizes, other than the jackpot. The jackpot can be claimed for up to a year from the date of the POWERBALL® draw,” according to the California Lottery website. “The sales from POWERBALL® in California help supplement public education funding in the State of California just like the sales from all other California Lottery games.”
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