Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.5 billion but two Californians walk away millionaires
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s lottery jackpot climbed to $1.5 billion before the odds of winning it dwindled.
A number of winning tickets sold at the California State Lottery’s main game, and a special drawing held Thursday night in San Diego, generated the $1.5 billion haul, officials said Friday.
“It’s an enormous win,” said Mark Lillie, a spokeswoman for the Lottery’s parent company, California Lottery Inc.
“The money is in the accounts. We don’t have to send it out to pay other winners. We are taking care of that,” he said.”
There are about 4 million games at the state-run lottery, with the last drawing was held Saturday. Each state-run lottery has a $50 million “winnings pool,” which is accumulated every four years by winning jackpots and can be cashed out at a later date.
The numbers were drawn live Thursday on the lottery’s website, www.calstatelottery.com.
The drawing took place at the El Cortez Casino in San Diego with no buy-in, officials said. It was part of the annual “Lottery Live” gameshows at the casino.
“It was a fun event and I enjoyed it,” said Jennifer Anderson said.”I thought it was very entertaining.”
She said she lost $600 on the big jackpot of $1.5 billion.
The winner of the biggest lottery jackpot – $1.6 billion – was not a Cal State student, she said.
When she checked with the lottery, she learned that her mother-in-law also won $1.5 billion, according to the website, which did not give further details.
“It’s been a very long time since I have been a winner so many in the family are very excited. We just celebrated our daughter’s (daughter’