TRENTON, N.J. — The person who bought the lone winning ticket for the $429.6 million Powerball jackpot purchased just one ticket for the drawing, New Jersey lottery officials said Monday.
Carole Hedinger, the lottery’s executive director, said that the ticket was purchased at 5:20 p.m. last Tuesday at a 7-Eleven store in the state’s capital city. The purchaser spent $2 for single, manual plays for the drawings held last Wednesday and Saturday, and spent an extra $1 on each ticket to get the “Power Play” option that multiplies the winnings.
The person who holds the ticket has not yet come forward.
Only one ticket matched all six Powerball numbers in Saturday night’s drawing. The winning numbers were 5-25-26-44-66 and the Powerball number was 9. Lottery officials say it was purchased as a cash ticket and is valued at $284 million.
Hedinger recommended that the person sign the back of the ticket and bring it to the lottery headquarters in Trenton, where officials can “safeguard” the ticket and start the validation process. Meanwhile, the ticket holder can seek advice from financial experts and other professionals.
“They spent $6 to win $284 million. That’s a pretty good investment,” Hedinger said.
Andrea Shin, who owns the convenience store where the ticket was sold, received a $30,000 bonus from the lottery. She said most of her customers are people who live in neighborhoods near the store, so she’s hoping one of them is the big winner.
“It’s amazing to be part of all this, we’re all very excited that our store was involved,” Shin said during a news conference staged at her store. “This is a life-changing event for the winner, and I hope this brings positive things for them.”
The ticket is the largest single jackpot winning ticket sold in New Jersey.
The jackpot Saturday was the largest since a record $1.6 billion payout in January. That jackpot was shared by three winning tickets.
Only one winning ticket will claim Saturday night’s prize, though it was not immediately known if that ticket was held by one person or multiple people.
This isn’t the first time Powerball luck has struck in New Jersey. In 2013, a sole ticket claimed a $383 million Powerball jackpot.
Seven tickets from Saturday night’s drawing matched five numbers and claimed $1 million, including three in New York, two in Illinois and one apiece in California and Virginia.
Powerball is played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The odds of winning are one in 292.2 million.
