A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winning streak that lasted more than three months.
The single ticket, revealed after a delay of more than three hours in the drawing, matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement.
The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payment followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.
Until the last drawing, no one had won the Powerball top prize since New Year’s Day, for a total of 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a winning streak established twice in 2022 and 2021.
The $1.326 billion prize is the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales and as a result the jackpots become more difficult to win. The long game odds for the weekend’s drawing were 1 in 292.2 million.
Saturday night’s scheduled drawing was delayed from taking place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to allow one of the organizers to complete the required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., he Powerball said in a statement.
“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement read. “This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance of winning. Tonight we have a jurisdiction that needs more time to complete the pre-draw process.”
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball officials did not immediately say where the verification issue occurred.
It’s the second time there’s been a delay in drawing the massive Powerball jackpot in the last 17 months.
In November 2022, the Powerball drawing for a record $2.04 billion, won by a single ticket sold in Southern California, was delayed nearly 10 hours. The Minnesota Lottery later announced that there was a technical problem with its two-tier verification process, which is operated by outside vendors.