Lucky Powerball ticket holder wins biggest lottery jackpot in history: $2.04bn (£1.76bn!!!) | US News

A lucky lottery ticket holder in the US has won the $2.04 billion jackpot (£1.76 billion!!!), the largest lottery prize in history.

The winner bought the lottery ticket in California after no one won the jackpot for three months in a row.

Winning tickets are sold at the Joe Service Center in Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles.

Powerball players shopping at Joe’s will now be scrambling to see if they’ve become the country’s newest billionaire.

According to the latest Forbes billionaires list, whoever it is, has become the 1,292nd richest person in the world.

They are tied with nearly 50 other billionaires, including those who built their fortunes in the oil industry, real estate and Greek yogurt.

The winning numbers drawn at the Florida Lottery Studio in Tallahassee were white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56.

The red powerball is 10.

The winner must guess all six lucky numbers, including the final Powerball, to claim the jackpot.

The new jackpot surpasses the record $1.586 billion (£1.398 billion) prize won by three Powerball players in California, Florida and Tennessee in 2016.

Latest jackpot hits estimates $1.9bn (£1.6bn) on Mondaybut increased to $2.04bn (£1.8bn) this morning after updating the calculations.

The winning ticket holder is the first to claim the Powerball jackpot since a Pennsylvania player took home more than $200 million (£177 million) on August 3.

The 39 consecutive draws without a jackpot reflect the tough odds of winning the jackpot – 1 in 292.2 million.

The previous jackpot has only surpassed $1bn (£860m) four times, but none came close to today’s jackpot, which started at $20m (£17m) on August 6, but has ballooned to three without a win month.

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The latest draw was due to take place on Monday night but was postponed until Tuesday at 8.57am ET (1.57pm UK time).

The Multi-State Lottery Association said the draw was delayed because participating lotteries had problems handling sales.

The association said it was against its policy to say which lottery was delayed.

The $2.04 billion prize is awarded to the winner of the Select Annuity, payable annually for 29 years. Nearly all of the winners opted for cash, but the value of that option wasn’t immediately available on Tuesday morning.

The game is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Oh, and if you have a vested interest in EuroMillions, the winning numbers for the latest draw are: 03, 05, 32, 33, 50. Lucky stars are 01 and 08. The jackpot is £14 million.

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