The mysterious winner of last summer’s $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot was finally revealed Friday.
Yanira Álvarez has been identified as the lucky winner after purchasing the ticket at Las Palmitas Mini Market, a small convenience store in downtown Los Angeles.
His victory in July marked the end of a series of 39 Powerball jackpot drawings and the first of two consecutive billion-dollar winning tickets sold in California, lottery officials said.
The lucky woman opted for the one-time lump sum of $558.1 million instead of the $1.08 billion paid in annual increments.
The next Powerball drawing is scheduled for Saturday night, with an estimated jackpot of $935 million, or a cash value of $452.3 million, as a result of no one winning the top prize for 37 consecutive drawings.
Yanira Álvarez has been identified as the lucky winner of last summer’s Powerball jackpot valued at $1.08 billion.
His win last July marked the end of a run of 39 Powerball jackpots and the first of two consecutive billion-dollar winning tickets sold in California, lottery officials said.
Alvarez’s prize was the third largest in the game’s history at the time of the drawing, but now ranks fourth after Theodorus Struyck, another California resident, won the $1.75 million jackpot last October.
Struyck appeared earlier this month as a representative of a group of winners who purchased the ticket at Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park, about an hour’s drive from Los Angeles.
“Announcing big wins like this gives all of our players the opportunity to hope and dream that they could be next,” California Lottery Director Harjinder K. Shergill Chima said in a news release.
DailyMail.com revealed last year that Las Palmitas Mini Market, the market where the billion-dollar bill was sold, is located just a few blocks from the Skid Row homeless encampments in Los Angeles.
Store owner Nabor Herrera, who received a $1 million bonus just for selling the ticket, said he didn’t realize he had sold the winning ticket until he came to work early Thursday and saw cameras camped in front of the store. store.
“I tell you it’s a surprise to me, I didn’t know what it was: filming or what,” said the father of four. KTLA-TV.
Store owner Nabor Herrera, who received a $1 million bonus just for selling the ticket, said he didn’t realize he had sold the winning ticket until he came to work early Thursday and saw cameras camped in front of the store. store.
A narrow hole in the wall with shelves filled with snacks and other items, the store is not far from the skid row neighborhood.
DailyMail.com revealed last year that Las Palmitas Mini Market, the market where the billion-dollar bill was sold, is located just a few blocks from the Skid Row homeless encampments in Los Angeles.
Herrera, who has owned the store for seven years, said he had sold many Powerball tickets in recent days, mostly to locals in the neighborhood.
The merchant said he planned to use his $1 million seller bonus to expand his business and perhaps take his family on a “weeklong” vacation to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
The store is also just 13 miles from the store where Powerball winner Edwin Castro bought his ticket for November’s $2.04 billion jackpot, the largest in U.S. history.
Powerball is played in 45 states, plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Lottery jackpots have increased in recent years, after changes that made the odds longer and winning more difficult.
The store is also located just 13 miles from the store where Powerball winner Edwin Castro (right) bought his ticket for November’s $2.04 billion jackpot, the largest in U.S. history.
Lottery jackpots have increased in recent years, after changes that made the odds longer and winning more difficult.
In 2015, the Powerball lottery increased the odds of winning from 1 in 175.2 million to 1 in 292.2 million.
Mega Millions followed two years later and stretched the odds of winning the jackpot from 1 in 258.9 million to 1 in 302.6 million.
The largest lottery payout in US history was a massive $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot that was won on November 8, 2022, with the winning ticket sold in California.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot was $1.537 billion won by an anonymous player in South Carolina on October 23, 2018.
The rich $1 billion Powerball prize and a separate $720 million Mega Millions jackpot sparked a ticket-selling frenzy at convenience stores and gas stations across the country Wednesday.
It is only the fifth time that the jackpots of both draws have exceeded $500 million at the same time, and the combined payout of $1.72 billion is the fifth largest in history, according to data provided to DailyMail.com by lottery critic.