Woman Claims Massive Powerball Jackpot
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A Massachusetts woman is all smiles today.
Why wouldn't she be - Mavis Wanczyk comes forward to claim the last night's Powerball jackpot of $758 million.
She bought the winning ticket at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee.
It was initially reported that the winning ticket was sold at the Handy Variety convenience store in Watertown, and that a $1 million prize winning ticket was sold at the Pride Station & Store.
Wanczyk said she heard that the winning ticket was bought in Watertown, she could believe it since her ticket matched all the numbers and was bought about 80 miles away.
Handy Variety actually sold the $1 million prize winning ticket. A million dollar prize ticket was also sold at Sandy's Variety in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
The $758-million jackpot was the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.
The winning numbers are 6-7-16-23-26 and the Powerball number was 4.
In Florida, three tickets matched five numbers, but not the Powerball number, to win a million dollars each. Also, 24 tickets sold in the state matched four numbers, including the Powerball number, to win $50-thousand.
Powerball tickets are $2 each and can be played in 44 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The chance of winning Powerball is incredibly small, at 292.2 million to one. Tom Rietz, a professor at the University of Iowa who researches probabilities, says one way to think about it is to envision the 324 million U.S. residents. Your chance of winning is roughly comparable to being that one lucky person out of the entire population, with everyone else losing.
The next drawing, Saturday night, is an estimated $40 million.
You can watch the Powerball drawing Wednesday night during the 11pm news on CBS4, your official lottery station.
