After a one-night delay, the historic prize of nearly R$10 billion from Powerball, the traditional lottery game in the United States, was withdrawn on Tuesday (8). Brazilians interested in becoming billionaires were able to participate in online betting from specialized sites. But the prize went to an American bookie.
Numbers drawn: 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56 with another “10” like Powerball.
Powerball works with five main numbers from a set of 69 white balls, plus a number called the Powerball, taken from one of the 26 red balls. To take home the jackpot, it is necessary to hit at least one red ball on the bet. If a player matches all six numbers, they win the jackpot. In the United States, each ticket costs US$2 (approximately R$10).
The California Lottery said the only winning ticket was sold at a gas station in Pasadena. According to the American newspaper The New York Times, Powerball officials reported that the winner was the first person to become a billionaire thanks to the lottery. To date, the winner has not been determined or stepped forward to claim the prize.
For selling the winning ticket, the station owner received US$1 million, the equivalent of more than R$5 million, from the raffle organizer. Joseph Chahayed encouraged bookies to shop at his store. “We guarantee you will win one day,” the man said. He claims that he plans to spend this money on his family, including his 11 grandchildren.
The large sum of money attracted the attention of gamblers. Since 2016, the lottery has not attracted such a high prize: in January of that year, three players shared the jackpot of $ 1.586 billion. The winners were from Chino Hills (California), Mumford (Tennessee) and Melbourne Beach (Florida).
In addition to the new billionaire, the tickets of more than 11.2 million gamblers were awarded different amounts to match fewer numbers. In addition to the main prize, a total of 98.1 million USD was awarded.
Delay
The draw, scheduled for this morning’s Brazilian time, had to be postponed due to the delay in counting the bets. One of the 48 participating lotteries is still “processing sales and betting data,” organizers said in a statement.
According to the rules of the game, the prize can only be determined after all bettors provide full information about the tickets sold in the competition.
source: Noticias
