A lucky man or woman is nearly $700 million richer after a securing a jackpot win with a Powerball purchase in California - making them one of the biggest lottery winners of all time.
The fateful ticket was sold to an unnamed customer at an Albertsons grocery store in Morro Bay, a small, scenic coastal town near the city of San Luis Obispo, after more than four months of the prize going unclaimed.
In the days leading up to the pivotal purchase, the jackpot soared to a stunning $699.8 million - making it the fifth-largest prize in Powerball history, and the seventh- largest US lotto win of all time.
Lottery officials won´t know the identity of the holder of the winning ticket until a claim form is filed, the California Lottery said.
The winner will be able to choose between an annuity option - paid in installments over the course of 29 years - or cash, in which case their winnings will be reduced by nearly thirty percent, to a sum of $496 million.
Both prize options are subject to taxes.
The fateful ticket was sold to an unnamed customer at an Albertsons grocery store in Morro Bay, a small, scenic coastal town near the city of San Luis Obispo, after more than four months of the prize going unclaimed
In the days leading up to the pivotal purchase, the jackpot soared to a stunning $699.8 million - making it the fifth-largest prize in Powerball history, and the seventh- largest US lotto win of all time.
The game's grand prize had climbed to astronomical heights since June, as no participants were able to pick out a winning combination of numbers - which meant the sum would continue to grow larger until a winner emerged.
However, after 40 drawings without a winner, the single ticket - sold at the small-town store situated along California's Central Coastal region - managed to match ALL six numbers, including the all-important Powerball, garnering them nearly $700 million in winnings.
For selling the fateful ticket, the Morro Bay Albertsons will receive a maximum bonus of $1 million.
The winning numbers drawn Monday night were 12, 22, 54, 66 and 69. The the Powerball - the coup de grâce that yields the game's grand prize - was 15.
No one had won the grand prize since June 5.
Powerball holds the world record for the largest prize ever awarded in US lotto history, after a jackpot in January 2016, for the first time passed the $1 billion threshold.
The advertised jackpot stood at $1.586 billion.
The unprecedented purse was split between three winning tickets in California, Florida, and Tennessee.
The biggest Powerball winner of all time, however, was claimed just two years ago, in Wisconsin, by then-24-year-old Manuel Franco.
After playing regularly since he was 18, Manuel - one of the youngest Powerball winners of all-time - managed to secure a stunning $768.4 million on March 27 of that year, without having to split the gargantuan sum with anyone else.
The draw was the second-largest jackpot in Powerball history.
Powerball's third-largest jackpot, a $758.7 million sum won by a then-53-year-old Mavis Wanczyk of Massachusetts in 2017, stood as the largest single win of a jackpot in history at the time, but has since been surpassed.
Mavis, however, elected to take home the lump cash sum, which reduced her winnings to a still respectable $480.5 million.
Monday's winner in Morro Bay now earns the distinction of the winner of the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot since the game was conceived nearly 30 years ago, in 1992.
This win, the 41st drawing over the course of more than four months, set a record for the amount of draws before garnering of a grand prize, topping the previous mark of 36 drawings that eventually yielded a winner in January 2021.
As stated the longer the game goes without a grand prize winner, the larger the payout grows - a purposeful concept implemented by organizers, to draw in more players.
The odds of winning the game's grand prize is an awe-inspiring 292.2 million to one.
However, a slew of people have win smaller prizes playing the particular lotto - including 2.8 million players in Saturday's drawing alone.
Those winnings ranged from $1 million to $4.
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
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