3 Powerball Jackpot Winners Confirmed, 12 In Minn. Win Other Prizes
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Quite a crowd gathered at a store that sold one of the three winning Powerball tickets Wednesday night.
Three winners were confirmed in Wednesday's Powerball. The winners were from California, Tennessee and Florida.
The final total for the jackpot was $1,586,000,000, with a cash value of $983 million. Split three ways, that's $327 million each, before taxes.
Sometimes winners are revealed the following day but not very often, and especially not with a jackpot like this. However, the names will eventually be released, because winners in these three states are required to reveal themselves.
The first store to confirm a winner was a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, just outside of Los Angeles. A cheering crowd gathered there overnight.
The 7-Eleven gets a $1 million bonus for selling the winning ticket.
The winning ticket in Tennessee was sold north of Memphis, and a location in Florida yet has not been released yet.
Lottery officials expected more than 85 percent of all possible number combinations were played. If no one had won last night, they think the next jackpot would have reached $2 billion.
No Powerball jackpot winners were named in Minnesota. Even so, Minnesota has plenty to celebrate.
Powerball sales of $49,104,457 from the 20-draw run generated $20, 722,081 for lottery beneficiaries, which include the state's general fund, the environment and natural resources trust fund, the game and fish fund and the natural resources fund.
The biggest prize won in Minnesota was $50,000. Twelve people matched four balls plus the Powerball to win $50,000 each.
The lottery is still waiting on six people who won $50,000 in Saturday's drawing.
Before the deadline Wednesday, the Minnesota State Lottery said they were selling 7,000 tickets per minute.
Wednesday night's nearly $1.6 billion Powerball takes the cake as the all-time number one jackpot in U.S. history.
Mega Millions jackpots from 2012 and 2013 come in second and third, with the previous biggest Powerballs just about a third as big as Wednesday's.
