Two days after $1.3 billion Powerball drawing, the winning Oregon ticket holder remains unknown

By CLAIRE RUSH and MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The winner of the eighth-biggest lottery prize in U.S. history won’t be announced for at least a couple more weeks until their ticket is verified and arrangements for the massive payment are made, Oregon lottery officials said Tuesday.

A person with a ticket matching all six Powerball numbers in Saturday’s $1.3 billion jackpot came forward Monday to claim the prize from last weekend’s drawing. They bought the ticket at a convenience store in northeastern Portland.

For selling the winning ticket, managers of the Plaid Pantry location plan to share their $100,000 bonus. The store’s other employees typically get a cut of lottery prize bonus payments too, said Jonathan Polonsky, CEO and president of Plaid Pantry.

Lottery officials said they were taking precautions to verify the win and in order to send the winner the sum, they will need to coordinate with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries. That will take time.

“We’ve never had a jackpot this large in Oregon won here. There’s a lot of moving pieces,” Oregon Lottery spokesperson Melanie Mesaros said.

Oregon has had five previous Powerball jackpot winners, including two families who shared a $340 million prize in 2005.

The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments.

In Oregon, the prize is subject to federal and state taxes that whittle down the haul by a couple hundred million.

The prize was the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history and the eighth largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

The largest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.

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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.