Early reports suggest that a single player in Lafayette, Tennessee, managed to match all five numbers plus the all-important Powerball on Saturday night, automatically making themselves $420 million richer. The winning numbers in the draw, which was one of the popular lottery’s biggest to date, were: 17, 19, 21, 37 and 44. The Powerball was 16.
The Tennessee ticket-holder has yet to come forward, but Powerball officials has advised that they sign the back of their ticket and keep it in a safe place until that time. Whoever they are, the Powerball jackpot winner now has a decision to make: either receive their gargantuan prize in installments over the course of the next 30 years, or take it as a lump sum worth approximately $254.7 million.
A Powerball player in North Carolina also scooped $2 million in Saturday night’s draw by matching the first five numbers and the Power Play ball.
This Powerball payout means that the jackpot for Wednesday’s draw has been reset to the not-unsubstantial figure of $40 million. The jackpot for Mega Millions, one of the US’s other big lotteries, meanwhile, currently stands at $25 million.
