Winning tickets for record-setting, $1.6 billion Powerball in Calif., Fla., Tenn.
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Version 0 of 1. Ah, the morning after the biggest lottery jackpot drawing in the history of the game. Now the bad news: The new multi-millionaires are locals. The winning tickets for Wednesday night’s $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot were sold in Tennessee, Florida and California. [ Powerball has at least three winners in $1.6 billion jackpot ] Bummed? But the DMV region did have some — albeit smaller — winners of $1 million prizes in the drawing. In Maryland, officials said there were three, $1 million winners who bought tickets in Frederick, Capitol Heights and Bladensburg. In Virginia, there were two winners of $1 million in Salem and Virginia Beach. It was not immediately known of details of winners in the District. The Powerball jackpot hysteria had been growing in recent weeks. There had been no winner for the mega jackpot since Nov. 4 and the prize money kept rolling over and eventually reached a record-setting level of more than $1 billion. Billboards that advertise the lottery prize only went to million-dollar spots in some areas. [ The $1,500,000,000 Powerball jackpot is so big it doesn’t even fit on lottery billboards ] Although there weren’t any big, big winners in the D.C. region, there were tales of others who won smaller amounts in the drawings over the last few weeks of Powerball hype. A group of 10 people who work for the Baltimore County Office of Permits, Approvals and Inspections won $150,000 in the Jan. 9 Powerball drawing. The group, which called itself The Terrific Ten, had played together by pooling their money for 15 years, according to Maryland lottery officials. The group’s leader told lottery officials: “When I first looked at the ticket, I saw three numbers. I had to get my glasses, and my daughter was asking me if we won, and I said, ‘I don’t know!’” His daughter helped him figure out they had in fact won. Another Marylander won $1 million in the Jan. 9 Powerball drawing. The 51-year-old Worcester County man, who has four children, told lottery officials that he bought a Powerball ticket at a Food Lion store in Berlin, Md., as he picked up two limes and bought a lottery ticket. He couldn’t sleep the night of the drawing, thinking about what he’d do if he won millions in a lottery. After he realized he won in the middle of the night, he told lottery officials, he kept quiet, not wanting to wake his sleeping wife. “I was numb,” he said. Maryland is one of six states where winners can remain anonymous. [ D.C. man wins Powerball but chooses to remain anonymous ] Still, much of the media coverage and excitement focused on the big, big prize — the $1 billion-plus jackpot. On Wednesday night, after the winning numbers were picked, area residents packed a 7-Eleven store in suburban Los Angeles where one of the big-dollar winning tickets was sold. The winner — or winners — have not come forward but the store’s owner who gets roughly $1 million for selling the lucky ticket gave away free Slurpees. Powerball, which was started in the 1990s, sells tickets in 44 states, the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The winning numbers for the Wednesday’s biggest Powerball jackpot were 8-27-34-4-19 and Powerball: 10. |