One lucky California resident is about to be a whole lot richer.
According to the Powerball website, a single winner from California won the record-breaking $2 billion jackpot during Monday’s drawing. Lottery officials confirmed the lucky draw to the Los Angeles Times. The record-breaking figure was originally set at $1.9 billion dollars, but was readjusted to more than $2 billion after lottery officials adjusted their calculations; the jackpot has an approximate cash value of $997.6 million.
“California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire!” the California state lottery announced on its Twitter account Tuesday. “One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw. The final jackpot amount for this draw came to $2.04 BILLION dollars.” The lottery also announced that five players in Gardena, Beaumont, and San Francisco matched five numbers minus the Powerball, which awards a $1 million prize.
The winning numbers were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56. The Powerball number was 10.
A spokeswoman for the California lottery told CNN Tuesday that the winner has yet to come forward. “Somebody is holding on to a very important piece of paper this morning,” lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Becker told CNN.
According to the Powerball website, in addition to the jackpot, one winner in Florida matched the five winning numbers with a Power Play bonus, doubling the prize amount to $2 million. On top of that, a total of 22 players in 16 states, including the five, won $1 million by matching the five winning numbers.
In addition to the winners, the owner of Joe’s Service Center, Joseph Chahayed, was also awarded $1 million for selling the winning ticket. “They said, ‘Congratulations, your station sent a winner,’” Chahayed recounted to CNN. The gas station owner is a Syrian native who immigrated to the U.S. in 1980 with his wife and two children. He has 11 grandchildren.
The prize was so large that California officials had to improvise their sign at Joe’s Service Center. Officials reportedly taped the letter “B” over the “Millionaire made here” sign given to stores where winning tickets are sold, so that it would read “Billionaire made here,” CNN reported.
The drawing was originally scheduled for Monday, but was delayed after the Minnesota lottery announced it was having an issue with its sales verification system that was causing processing delays. “The Powerball drawing scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7 remains delayed,” the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a statement at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. “Currently, one participating lottery is still processing its sales and play data. Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to submit their sales and play data prior to the winning numbers being selected. Once Powerball receives the outstanding submission, the drawing can proceed.”
“Powerball has stringent security requirements to protect the integrity of the game and remains committed to holding a drawing that gives all players a fair chance to win,” the organization added. “Due to the length of the draw delay, it is likely that we will not know the official results of the Powerball drawing until Tuesday morning. Players should hold onto their tickets.”
The Multi-State Lottery Association said that the current jackpot hit on the 41st draw of the run. It was the sixth time the Powerball jackpot hit this year; the last time was on August 3, when a player in Pennsylvania won $206.9 million, NBC 10 Philadelphia reported at the time. The previous record Powerball jackpot hit in January 2016, when three winners in California, Florida, and Tennessee split a $1.586 billion jackpot; each person walked away with nearly $529 million, before taxes.
